French, 1800-20, Demay, Abingdon Coll., 86/2133

Canapé of carved mahogany, the front legs and uprights in the form of winged leopard monopodia. The back legs are rectangular in section, tapering and raked, rising to form the uprights of the square backs. The seat rails are bowed on the fronts. On the monopodia figures the wings are swept back to form the upper part of the arms, ending in scrolls against the back uprights. The backs are upholstered à tablette, the sides below the wings fully upholstered, the seats with loose squab cushions. The back panels of the chairs are upholstered behind low cross-rails of mahogany. The canapé is of pegged construction, the inner edges of the front rails showing two notches for clamps.
The seat two beech cross-struts underneath, the left one with six shallow depressions on the underside, irregularly spaced, possibly the result of cramping. There are two cramp marks inside the front rail.
The upholstery shows the original webbing, close-set, the webs about 9cm in width, of plain weave, with some newer twine stitching for the newer coverings.

The Bettine, Lady Abingdon Collection. The Bequest of Mrs T. R. P. Hole

One of a large number of pieces of French furniture, ceramics, metalwork, books and other decorative arts, from the Empire period and earlier, acquired in Paris by Charles Stuart (from 1828 1st Lord Stuart de Rothesay) (1779--1845). The Empire furnishings were probably purchased during his first period as ambassador to Paris (1815--1824), the earlier furnishings during his second embassy (1828--30). The Empire furnishings may have been intended for a London house. He acquired 4 Carlton House Terrace, where improvements were carried out from 1827 to 1831, and he moved in in 1834. Older furnishings were more probably purchased for his country house, Highcliffe Castle, Hampshire (now Dorset), which was remodelled and enlarged in the most ambitious Gothic style from 1830 to 1834, with some work continuing throughout the 1830s. In 1841 the house in Carlton House Terrace was let, and the family moved their London residence to Whitehall Yard. It was possibly at that time -- or in 1845, the date of Lord Stuart de Rothesay's death -- that the Empire furnishings were moved to Highcliffe.
Lord Stuart de Rothesay's collections were inherited in 1867 by his younger daughter Louisa, Lady Waterford (1818--1891), who maintained Highcliffe Castle. She left the house and its collections to her distant cousin Major-General Edward Stuart Wortley (1857--1934). When his younger daughter Elizabeth ('Bettine') married Montagu Bertie, 8th Earl of Abingdon, in 1928, he bought the castle and its contents from his father-in-law. The Abingdons sold Highcliffe and most of its contents in 1949, but retained the present group of furniture and some other pieces. After her husband's death in 1963, Lady Abingdon lived for much of the time with her close friends Mr and Mrs Tahu Hole, to whom she bequeathed all her personal possessions on her death in 1978. Tahu Hole died in 1985, and a year later his widow Joyce approached the Museum and offered the collection as a bequest. She died in December 1986, and in accordance with her will the Museum chose those items that it wished to add to its collections. Other items from the collection were sold to benefit the Museum, and the proceeds added to the funds bequeathed.

Historical significance: Jean-Baptiste-Bernard Demay (1759--1848) married the daughter of the menuisier Claude Sené (1724--1792) and was granted his maitrise in 1784, continuing his father-in-law's workshop from about 1806. He worked for the Garde Meuble Imperial, producing much high-quality furniture, specializing in carving in mahogany and often using -- as here -- carved motifs in place of gilt-bronze mounts.
These large-scale winged monopodia relate to a fauteuil de bureau (writing armchair) supplied by Jacob-Desmalter in 1825 for the Château de Malmaison. (See Alvar Gonzalez-Palacios, The French Empire Style (London, 1955), p. 111.) A similar chair appears in a portrait by Jean-Baptiste Isabey of the Emperor in his study at the Tuileries Palace, beside a table with similar supporters. (See Madame Basily-Callimaki, Jean-Baptiste Isabey, sa Vie, son Temps, 1767--1855 (Paris, 1909), p. 95.) Demay's father-in-law Sené had also made chairs with large winged monopodia (see Denise Ledoux-Lebard, Les Ébénistes du XIXe. Siècle 1759--1889 (Paris, 1989), p. 283).

This sofa and two armchairs (W.9A/1,2-1987 and W.9B-1987) en suite, in the French Empire style, are by the menuisier (joiner) J.-B.-B. Demay, who supplied a good deal of furniture to the establishment of Napoleon I. Demay specialized in carving in mahogany, often, as here, using carved motifs in place of gilt-bronze mounts. These three pieces form part of a group of furniture purchased in Paris by Lord Stuart de Rothesay, who served twice as British ambassador there (1815-1824 and 1828-1830). Stuart de Rothesay acquired a large quantity of French Empire furniture, which he later brought back to Britain to use both in his London home and Highcliffe Castle, the house in Dorset that he built in 1830-1834.

W.9C-1987