Armchair, English, ca. 1540, carved oak

Arm-chair. The square back, surmounted at either end by the figure of a crouching lion, has an oblong panel carved with classical terminal figures ending in scrolls, with two linenfold panels below. The flat arms are enclosed. The front of the box seat has two linenfold panels of simpler form than those on the back; the panelled sides and back of the chair are plain. (Taken from Tracy)

Bought for £200 from G.C.Beresford (an Edwardian photographer), of 20 Yeoman's Row, London SW3. 'Chipped, cracked and portions missing'. Purchased by the former owner at the sale of contents of a private residence near Cambridge in 1904 (for £32). H.Clifford Smith (nominal file minute sheet, 23,25/6/1920) had known 'this important chair for a number of years..The chair is of great interest as an example of a domestic chair of the time of Henry VIII.' He notes the difficulty in distinguishing between Flemish and English work of that date but feels there is no reason to doubt it is English. 'It is an object of such high importance, that an endeavour should be made to acquire for the collections - which possess no example of a chair of the period.'

Percy Macquoid reported on the chair 30/6/1920 and concluded that it was English c1535-40. 'It is genuine throughout but the plank of the seat has been renovated. It was probably a bedroom chair, placed at the head of the bed.' He felt it was English because of 'its narrow and rather heavier build than Flemish chairs of this type, and the characteristics of the linenfold. The small panel that heads the back is an adaptation of Flemish renaissance design found in Eastern countrywork, and not possessing the Flemish touch. It is a rare and desirable specimen. The lion couchant finials are of one piece with the uprights of the back which no doubt accounts for their perfect state.'

Conservation treatment 1987

Notes from R.P. 20/4627

Purchase Form Description
"1. Chair. Oak £200"

23 & 25/6/20 Minute sheet, H Clifford Smith
explains that G C Beresford, a photographer of 20 Yeomans Row, has offered the chair to the museum for £200. Smith has known "this important chair for a number of years". Beresford bought the chair at auction at a private house near Cambridge in 1904, from the same sale at which the V & A got a mahogany chest (1392-04).
"….The chair is of great interest as an example of a domestic chair of the time of Henry VIII". He notes the difficulty in distinguishing between Flemish & English work of that date but feels there is no reason to doubt it is English…"it is an object of such high importance, that an endeavour should be made to acquire for the collections - which possess no example of a chair of the period".

26/6/20, Oliver Brackett to the Director
recommends that Percy Macquoid give an opinion.

30/6/20, Macquoid report
on "an old panelled back arm chair circa 1535-40". He concludes that its origin is English. ""It is genuine throughout but the plank of the seat has been renovated. It was probably a bedroom chair, placed at the head of the bed". His determination of its English origin is based on "its narrow and rather heavier build than Flemish chairs of this type, and the characteristics of the linenfold. The small panel that heads the back is an adaptation of Flemish renaissance design found in Eastern countrywork, and not possessing the Flemish touch. It is a rare and desirable specimen. The lion couchant finials are of one piece with the uprights of the back which no doubt accounts for their perfect state".

6/7/20 Cecil Smith
approves the acquisition.

Sitting lion finials are shown on a bench seat in Robert Campin's Annunciation (1438-40), Musee Royal des Beaux-arts, Brussels (illustrated in Monique Blanc, p.44).

Comparable chairs;
Haddon Hall, Derbyshire

AMSTERDAM, Rijksmuseum: Catalogus van Meubelen en Betimmeringen. (The Hague, 1952). no. 182, with seated lion finials facing each other, and a hinged plank in the seat with keyhole.

BOND, Francis: Stalls and Tabernacle Work. (London, 1910), p.123 illustrates a box arm-chair of similar form from the Mainwearing chapel, inscribed DOROTHY MAYNWARING (m. Sir Richard Mainwaring of Lightfield, Shropshire 1545)

Wall painting of a master seated in a chair and teaching boys c1520, Eton, Head Master's Chambers, showing a box armchair with arched back and integral(?) plinth

Object Type
Box chairs or 'joyned cheyres', as they were called, furnished the houses of rich merchants as well as nobles. Their seats were supported by panelling rather than legs.

Time
The carving of this chair includes a classically influenced scroll in the back rest. This makes it an interesting example of the early use of Classical ornament applied to English furniture. Terms like 'Romayne' or 'Anticke' appear in inventories and building accounts during the 1520s.

Linenfold carving had appeared in The Netherlands by about 1450 and in England by about 1500.

Materials & Making
The seat and the panels immediately below the arms are probably later additions. The joinery is probably early, in that the joints are vertical or horizontal, as opposed to mitred (cut on the diagonal). The pegs that hold the pieces together are thought to be original.

Place
The scroll carving is similar to woodwork on the screen in the chapel at King's College, Cambridge, of about 1530 to 1535. The chair itself came from a private house, just outside Cambridge.

W.39-1920