Armchair
ca. 1898 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
This chair is part of a set of furniture designed by Odön Faragó for the garden house at the royal castle, Buda (now Budapest), for Queen Elizabeth of Hungary (1837–1898). The interior of the garden house was decorated with traditional Hungarian motifs including stylised floral and leaf decoration, and the set of furniture with similar decoration was made by Lörincz Lengyel, a cabinetmaker in Szeged, Hungary. It was shown at the Paris International Exhibition of 1900 and bought by Sir George Donaldson, a London dealer who was commissioned by the South Kensington Museum (the V&A’s predecessor) to buy modern works of art for the collection.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Materials and techniques | Carved ash, stained green; back and seat covered with red felt, decorated with appliqué ornament of coloured leather, sewn on with silk cord outline |
Brief description | of carved ash, with leather upholstery. Hungarian (Szeged), ca. 1898, by Odon Farago. Donaldson Collection |
Physical description | Carved ash, stained green; the back and seat are covered with red felt decorated with applique ornament of coloured leather sewn on with silk cord outline. The decoration on the back consists of a white oval compartment in the centre enriched with floral ornament and bordered by leafy stems from which spring floral sprays; round the whole is a border of half-rosettes. The framework of the back is composed of: 1) a curved rail above carved with two floral devices, 2) two uprights continuous with the back legs, and 3) two curved rails below. The seat is enriched with a border of leafy stems alternating with four rosettes. The arms are supported in front on uprights continuous with the front legs, and carved with leaves and rosettes; each arm is further supported by three small uprights carved with leaf ornament and resting on a rail, which in turn rests on one similar upright. |
Dimensions |
|
Style | |
Gallery label |
|
Credit line | Given by Sir George Donaldson |
Object history | Designed for the 'Garden Room' of the Summer House of the Royal Palace at Buda, for Queen Elizabeth of Hungary. The red felt covering was appliquéd with leather and silk embroidery designs taken directly form Kodmön jackets worn probably in Bekes County (Lou Taylor, 'Peasant Embroidery: rural to urban and east to west relationships 1860-1914' in the Journal of the Decorative Arts Society, vol. 14 (1990). pp. 43-51, the chair illustrated in fig. 5 on p. 46). |
Subjects depicted | |
Summary | This chair is part of a set of furniture designed by Odön Faragó for the garden house at the royal castle, Buda (now Budapest), for Queen Elizabeth of Hungary (1837–1898). The interior of the garden house was decorated with traditional Hungarian motifs including stylised floral and leaf decoration, and the set of furniture with similar decoration was made by Lörincz Lengyel, a cabinetmaker in Szeged, Hungary. It was shown at the Paris International Exhibition of 1900 and bought by Sir George Donaldson, a London dealer who was commissioned by the South Kensington Museum (the V&A’s predecessor) to buy modern works of art for the collection. |
Associated object | 144-1901 (Set) |
Bibliographic references |
|
Collection | |
Accession number | 143-1901 |
About this object record
Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
Record created | June 1, 2001 |
Record URL |
Download as: JSONIIIF Manifest