Armchair
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- Date:
- Artist/Maker:
- Materials and Techniques:
Carved and gilded wood, with upholstered seat, back and arms
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This grand armchair was evidently made as a ‘pattern chair’, showing several different options for the decoration of the arms and the legs. Some pattern chairs were made to commission for a client, so that he or she could then decide between the options proposed. This example, however, seems to have been made for display in the maker’s showroom rather than as a prototype of a chair for practical use, for it is too large to be comfortable, especially in the length of the seat. The naturalistic rococo ornament on the back and arms is combined with much more architectural ornament, in the style of William Kent, on the legs. It is unlikely that any customer would have ordered a suite mixing up these motifs, but they demonstrate very well the range of details that the maker could offer.
The ornament resembles designs by the carver Matthias Lock, but we do not know who made this ambitious chair.
Physical description
Armchair, carved and gilded wood of rococo design. The shaped back is carved with asymmetrical scrollwork, with beading around the inner border. The arms terminate in volutes. The arm supports are of square section carved with scale, money, husk and strapwork designs. There are five different designs on the arms and five different designs on the front and back legs. The seat rail is carved with an interlacing strap design. The seat back and arm-rests are upholstered.
Place of Origin
Great Britain, UK (made)
Date
ca. 1750-60 (made)
Artist/maker
Unknown (production)
Materials and Techniques
Carved and gilded wood, with upholstered seat, back and arms
Dimensions
Height: 114 cm, Width: 78 cm, Depth: 82 cm, Height: 46 cm seat, Width: 70 cm seat at front, Width: 61 cm seat at back, Depth: 59 cm seat
Object history note
The provenance is not known. When acquired by the Museum the frame was painted in two colours. It was gilded in the 1960s.
The chair was gilded all over in the early 1960s and re-upholstered with a blue material and a blue cushion made to match in 1969.
Historical significance: The chair is probably a carver's pattern chair, made to show clients a choice of carved decoration. The form of the chair, with a carved frame to the upholstered back, was newly fashionable in the 1750s, when such chairs were descrbed as 'French chairs', though appearing in English pattern books. The design of the chair is in the style of Matthias Lock (d.1765).
Descriptive line
Giltwood pattern armchair, with carved rococo style decoration. English, about 1750-60
Labels and date
The fact that the carving on the arms and the legs is not the same on each side suggests that this is a carver's pattern chair, made as a prototype when a new set of chairs was on order, with alternative proposals for some of the carved detail. The chair has recently been re-gilded and re-upholstered.
The traditional English armchair either had a wooden openwork and carved back or a fully padded one with no carved wood showing. About 1750 a new form made its appearance and this was generally termed a 'French chair'. The French preferred to construct the back as a carved frame with padding in the centre. In order not to damage the delicate carving when the chair was being uphostered, the padding was usually fitted to an inner frame or stretcher, which could be removed and was retained by small clips - a feature also to be seen on this chair. Later any chair with an upholstered back of a curvilinear form came to be known as a 'French chair'. [1969]
This carver's pattern chair was made as a prototype, when a new set of chairs was on order, with alternative proposals for some of the carved details. The design of the chair is in the style of Matthias Lock (d.1765). (John Hardy) [1976]
Production Note
The design is in the style of Matthias Lock
Materials
Wood
Techniques
Carving; Gilding; Upholstering
Subjects depicted
Scrollwork; Strapwork; Scale pattern; Beading (edging pattern); Volutes; Husks (motifs); Money pattern
Categories
Furniture
Collection code
FWK
