A Windsor armchair of low, comb-back form, of beech, with a seat of elm, painted overall with a red and white chequered pattern, the circular plaque in the centre of the comb section painted with the arms of Perceval and Compton.

A Windsor armchair of low, comb-back from, of beech with an elm seat, painted overall with a chequer pattern in red and white, the circular plaque in the centre of the comb section painted with the arms of Perceval and Compton, surrounded by a wreath of laurel, the arms with their supporters, 'two eagles sable [black]', carrying a white banderole on which is inscribed the Perceval family motto 'SUB CRUCE CANDIDA' [under the white cross]. Below the arms are inscribed the word 'Enmore' and the date MDCCLVI [1756]. The arms of Perceval are 'Argent; on a chief indented gules, three crosses pattée of the field'. The arms of Compton are 'Sable; a lion passant guardant or between three closed helmets argent'. The seat carries the crest of the Perceval family 'a thistle erect leaved proper'.

The armbow is made in three sections, with angled lap joints.The roundel is supported by a cusped bracket on either side and is lap-jointed to the crest rail, to which it is pegged. The spindles are shaped with a draw knife rather than turned. The chair seems to be largely of beech, with a seat of elm and the armbow in walnut. The back legs, one spindle and parts of the H-stretcher appear to be replacements. In 1979 Simon Jervis noted in 'The first century of the English Windsor chair, 1720-1820' (see ref. below) that X-rays had revelkaed mid-nineteenth-century screws in the Gothic brackets that connect the comb back and the central tablet - which suggest repair or even alteration.

X-ray(s) of this object are held in the Furniture Collection Library, Box of X-Rays of V&A instruments, shelfmark FW2.G.3 (2024)

This chair is one of at least two sets, with slightly different armorials, consisting of at least eight chairs in all, which were made for Enmore Castle, Somerset in the 18th century and are dated 1756 (some in latin form, some in arabic numerals). The arms of the Perceval and Compton families were taken to relate to the marriage of John, 2nd Earl of Egmont, and Catherine Compton (1731-1784, who was created Baroness Arden of Lohort Castle, Ireland, in 1770). Their marriage took place on 26 January 1756. The V&A chair said to have been purchased by Roger Bichard of Moxham Antiques, Bradford-on-Avon at a sale of the stock of Tithe Barn Galleries at a hotel in Glastonbury (date not recorded). The Tithe Barn Galleries had belonged to Mr S P Patmore of Somerton Court, Somerton, Somerset, but he could not, apparently recollect the chair, when enquiries were made.

The Perceval family were leaders of the Irish community in London. From 1719 until 1761 their London house was at 104 Pall Mall. The first Viscount was on cordial term with Robert Walpole and with his son Horace, with whom he dined on a number of occasions, and was a constant attender at court. This may account for his son's interest in Gothic architecture and his re-modelling of Enmore Castle in this style between 1751 and 1756.

Margaret Jourdain noted in 'The Early History of the Windsor Chair', Apollo, vol.36 (1942), pp. 67-9 that John Viscount Perceval, later first Earl of Egmont (1683-1748) had mentioned Windsor chairs in an account of a visit to the garden of Hall Barn, near Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, in 1724: 'my wife was carry'd in a Windsor chair like those at Versailles'. So the form was known to the family. Windsor chairs were used in libraries and halls in country houses from the 1720s, with 'seaven Japan'd Windsor Chairs', listed in the library at Cannon, near Stanmore, the house of the Duke of Chandos.

In 1989 Simon Jervis noted that in the Rev. S. Shaw's A Tour to the West of England in 1788 (London, 1789), p. 332, the author describes the hall at Enmore: 'the walls adorned with family busts and coats of arms; painted chairs of the same'. The 2nd Earl, who had purchased the castle from the Malet family, undertook considerable work at the castle 1751-1755. His son further embellised it in 1779 in the baronial style.

The chairs appears to have passed to Nicholas Broadmead of Miverton in 1834, as furnishings of the castle, which was sold out of the Perceval family. Evidence for this is that eight chairs of the two patterns were sold 31 March 1899, lots 266 and 267 (see notes below for sales of chairs from this group in 2004 and 2007). The first lot was described as ''Four strong painted arm chairs, with armorial bearings' and the second lot as 'Ditto') Although the sale date was quoted in 2004 an 2007, details of the auctioneer are not recorded, though in 2004 it was described as as a 'house sale' at Enmore Castle.

A chair of similar form, of painted beech (but not necessarily from the same set), was sold from the Carey Collection by Anderson Galleries, New York (sale 1644, 25 March 1922, lot 454), said to have been found in Burlington, Vermont (information from Nancy Goyne Evans, Winterthur, 15 June 1977).This appears to have had no painted arms.

The V&A chair purchased (Registered File 76/2631) in 1976 from Heirloom & Howard Ltd, Hay Hill, W1.

Another chair from the same set was with Jelinek & Sampson, London, in 1978. This armchair had the arms of Perceval and of his first wife, Lady Catherine Cecil (1719-1752).

Another was sold anonymously by Brightwells, Leominster, 28/9 May 2003, reported on the front page of The Antiques Trade Gazette 28 June 2003. This carried the arms of the Earl and his first wife, Lady Catherine Cecil, and appears (from a poor photograph) to have the eagle supporters, as on the V&A chair

Christie's offered two chairs from the sets 1 July 2004, lot 10, citing the 1899 sale in the provenance. Both these chairs were inscribed 'Enmore' and carried the date 1756 in Latin form. One was painted with the same arms as the V&A chair (i.e. with the arms of Perceval's second wife, Catherine Compton (1731 - 1784), and one with those of his first wife, Lady Catherine Cecil (1719-1752), daughter of the 5th Earl of Salisbury. On these chairs the arms of Perceval were quartered, with a shield in pretense, in the form sometimes recorded for John Perceval as 2nd Earl of Egmont and 1st Baron Lovel and Holland (post 1762). The illustrations are not clear enough to read these fully

Lawrence of Crewkerne offered four from the two sets for sale, as two pairs, 19 October 2007, lots 2070 and 2071. The sale entries for these offer the sale date of 31 March 1899 for the sale from Enmore but the name of the auctioneer and of the place of sale is not noted, although it is recorded that the chairs were bought by Mrs Notley of Combe Sydenham, Somerset, in whose family they remained until bought by the husband of the current vendor (no further details recorded). One of each pair of these chairs was decorated with the same arms as the V&A chair, but the second of each pair carried the arms of the 2nd Earl impaling those of his first wife, Lady Catherine Cecil (1719-1752), daughter of the 5th Earl of Salisbury. These also show the form of the Perceval arms that is quartered and shows a shield in pretence.

One of the above pairs was re-sold at Lawrence of Crewkerne on April 8 2022. Illustrated in Antiques Trade Gazette 7 May 2022 with article.

Another chair of this set was with Moxhams Antiques in 2012 and was illustrated in John Fiske, 'Beyond Practicality. Exceptional English Windsors', in 'Antiques Journal', February 2012, pp 31-33. This article shows other Windsors painted with armorials.

Such stylish versions of Windsor chairs were found occasionally in use in country houses, usually in the hall. Two sets of charis, of similar form to this chair, but in mahogany (one of ten chairs, one of six, with different central splats), are in the collections of the National Trust at Ham House, Surrey, shown in the Inner Hall. They are dated to ca. 1760 but no other information about them is recorded. Windsor chairs were also used in libraries, most famously in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

This chair is a rare survivor in that it still has its original painted decoration. Even more unusual is the fact that it is painted not only with the owner's coat of arms but with the name of the house for which it was made, Enmore Castle in Somerset, and the date, 1756 (in roman numerals). The arms are those of John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont, and his wife Catherine Compton, who were married in that year. The chair must originally have been part of a set that would have been used to furnish the hall at Enmore. Hall chairs, made of solid wood and painted with the owner's arms, emerged as a new type of furniture in the 1720s. Before that, Windsor chairs had sometimes been used to furnish halls, so this Windsor hall chair combines a relatively new fashion with an older tradition.

W.34-1976