Chair thumbnail 1
Chair thumbnail 2
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images
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
British Galleries, Room 52, The George Levy Gallery

Chair

1750-1775 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Object Type
This chair is in the once highly-fashionable Chinoiserie style, and might have been used for dining. It was probably one of a set.

Design & Designing
The overall form of the chair relates to designs from Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director (1754). The designs in this influential book were imitated and adapted by many chair-makers. In particular, the term 'Chippendale' is often used to describe chairs such as this one, with upswept shoulders, whether or not they were made in the firm's workshop. The decorative details, on the other hand, are not like Chippendale's designs. Many of the details, such as the small hanging bells, were thought of as Chinese, but were not actually used in China at this date.

Ownership & Use
This chair was later owned by the antiques collector Claude D. Rotch, and was bequeathed by him as part of his large collection in 1962.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Carved mahogany; modern upholstery
Brief description
Carved mahogany chair with splat carved in Chinese taste, with upholstered seat.
Physical description
Carved mahogany chair with upholstered seat. The chair is carved with decoration in the Chinese taste with a fretted splat and 'pagoda legs'. The uprights are splayed outwards and join an upward curving top rail which is surmounted by a carving shaped like a pagoda roof. The top rail ends in small pagoda caps. The uprights and the seat rails have fretted ornament in relief; the top rail has some rococo detailing. The front legs consist of clusters of three banded columns braced by C scroll brackets to the seat. The back legs have their square section cut away so that the central element is circular and banded at its centre. The back legs splay outwards. The legs are carved to suggest bamboo. The seat is upholstered and covered in modern green silk with a single row of brass nails.
Dimensions
  • Height: 97.79cm
  • Width: 57.15cm
  • Depth: 58.42cm
Dimensions checked: Registered Description; 10/01/1999 by LM
Gallery label
  • CHAIR ENGLISH; about 1760 Mahogany Claude Rotch Bequest(pre October 2000)
  • British Galleries: During the 1750s, British furniture-makers often combined Chinese, Gothic and Rococo motifs. The carver has combined Chinoiserie and Gothic motifs. The clustered columns of the legs are Gothic, but the pagoda-shaped cresting rail and the fretwork of the central splat are Chinese forms.(27/03/2003)
Credit line
Bequeathed by C. D. Rotch
Object history
Gifted as part of the Claude Rotch Bequest.
Summary
Object Type
This chair is in the once highly-fashionable Chinoiserie style, and might have been used for dining. It was probably one of a set.

Design & Designing
The overall form of the chair relates to designs from Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director (1754). The designs in this influential book were imitated and adapted by many chair-makers. In particular, the term 'Chippendale' is often used to describe chairs such as this one, with upswept shoulders, whether or not they were made in the firm's workshop. The decorative details, on the other hand, are not like Chippendale's designs. Many of the details, such as the small hanging bells, were thought of as Chinese, but were not actually used in China at this date.

Ownership & Use
This chair was later owned by the antiques collector Claude D. Rotch, and was bequeathed by him as part of his large collection in 1962.
Collection
Accession number
W.71-1962

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Record createdJanuary 26, 2001
Record URL
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