Chair of beechwood, the legs and back carved as small branches, painted brown, the seat upholstered in brown leather, one of a set of six

Chair of beechwood, the legs, seat rails and back carved and pierced to imitate interlaced branches and painted brown. The seat is upholstered in brown leather, the edges finished with brass-headed nails over a narrow tape of imitation leather. The upholstery is modern. The design of the back and rails differs on each chair in the set and there are minor differences in measurements.

The back and seat frame are carved with interlaced branches, apparently secured in the centre of the top with crossed fabric ties, and at the centre of the base with crossed cord, these areas probably originally gilded. The centre of the back appears to be cut substantially froma single plank of wood, jointed into the sides, top and bottom and with some supplementary stubs of branch jointed to the main panel. On the back the carving is flattened and less naturalistic, suggesting that these chairs were designed to stand formally round a room rather than to be used in the centre of the room.

The chair is jointed with mortice and tenon joints, secured with pegs, these visible in places under the painted finish as well as on the interior of the seat frame. The joint between the top member of the back and the sides is at a shallow angle, through the widest part at the top of the uprights. The seat rails are cut in the solid, carved on the front face, the lower edge shaped in the process and the areas behind the carving chamfered to increase a sense of lightness. Triangular blocks have been added to strengthen the seat at the back, probably in the 20th century.

The upholstery of the seats is lined under the webbing, the linings varying from chair to chair.

The dark brown paint is not original. It may have been added in the mid-19th century or later

Owned by Mrs North Peat, Paris, 1870s. In a letter, her grand-daughter, Viviane Clark, from 44 Berkeley Square, W.1, records 'I was thrilled at seeing our rustic chairs in the recent acquisition gallery. They were originally my grandmother's, Mrs North Peat. She lived in Paris. She had a husband who was very ill so she stayed there during the seige of Paris in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. After the war she was a widow and went to stay with her family in Eire. She returned to Paris before the end of the Commune, just when the French were selling the contents of the Tuileries Palace. Gran was short of furniture so she bought those six chairs which were said to be from the Orangerie. She often talked about them that they belonged to a large set - there was a sofa that belonged to some very old English people - friends of hers. I remember seeing it in their flat. When my father married she gave him three and when she got too old to live in Paris she came to us in England bringing some furniture and those chairs. My brother, Dermot Rourke [or Bourke] Bono..es[?] [or 'Rono..es]sold my father's house, Feltimores, Harlow, Essex in 1951 with the furniture. Those chairs fetched 70 gns then. Grand had a story that those chairs were originally at Bagatelle before Sir Richard Wallace lived there. I don't know how they got to the Tuileries.' This story requires investigation, not least because of the presence of a chair, apparently from the same set, in Ireland. The Orangerie at the Tuileries, however, was re-built in 1852 so may not have included any original furnishings in the 1870s. See V&A Registry, Registered File 52/4109 in Nominal File MA/1/S2595/10.

Sold by Sotheby's, London, 5 December 1952, lot 101. The set of 6 purchased for £160.

The set was shown with the fresco decoration from the painted dining-room at Drakelow Hall, Derbyshire (P.12-1934) in Gallery 40 from 1953 to 1980.

In 1988 a set of six chairs copying this design was made by W. Kelly of Glynde Place for use in the Cottage Ornée at Cahir for the Irish National Trust. See Registered File 87/1999.


This chair was not lent with others of the set (W.61, W.63, W.64 and W.66-1952) to the National Trust for display at Claydon House, Bucks, 1980-2002, but was lent at some point during this time to the London Museum (now the Museum of London).

A set of 4 chairs of similar nature but a different design, was sold at the 'Out of the Ordinary' sale of the stock of Christopher Gibbs and Harris Lindsay at Christie's, 10 May 2006, lot 148. Two chairs and a jardiniere, that were apparently from the same set, had been sold by Sotheby's, London, 27 November/ 11 December 1987, lot 272, with an identification as Italian and a statement: 'Reputedly made for the Palazzo Strozzi'.

Furniture of such 'rustic' design, intended to look as if made of branches and twigs, was used for summer-houses, grottos and cottages ornés (modestly sized houses, designed for summer or holiday use, often built in seaside areas or areas of natural beauty). Such buildings became fahionable in the late-18th century, at a time when there was new interest in nature and the simple life, as an escape from the pressures of courtly or metropolitan life.

Designs for chairs in 'rustic' form first appeared in Robert Manwaring's The Cabinet and Chair Maker's Real Friend and Companion, published in London, 1765. He wrote that they 'may be made with the Limbs of Yew or Apple Trees, as Nature produces them', although it is clear that these chairs have been carved to look like branches. He suggested that they should be painted green. The fashion continued into the 19th century and these chairs may date from as late as 1820, when the fashion was still going strong. The history of these chairs suggests they may have been made for the Orangerie at the Palais des Tuileries in Paris and their very upright back legs, without any rake, may suggest this, but they could equally have been made in Britain.

W.65-1952