Sofa, walnut veneer with gilding, with green velvet cover trimmed with silk braid, attributed to Thomas Roberts junior, London, c. 1725-30

Sofa with rectangular back and straight crest rail, with scrolled sides over a flared seat, upholstered in green velvet, edged with green braid. Raised on 3 cabriole forelegs and 3 conforming ogee back legs, all with stylised square-hoof feet. Legs and adjoining seat rails veneered in burr walnut, edged with water-gilded gesso decoration. Both front seat rails are centred with a gilt-gesso drop ornament of banded, stylised foliage. Knees of the 2 outer legs have raised corners of gilt gesso ornament, the knee of the centre leg, a raised centre of the same.

Accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum

The burr-walnut and gilt suite at Houghton was made to furnish the Wrought Bedchamber (originally planned as the dressing room) and the Cabinet (originally planned as the bedchamber) of the second state apartment, to accompany the Embroidered Bed there. While the bed appears to have been made c. 1715--20 for an earlier house (and soon afterwards altered by the insertion in the embroidery of the Garter, which was awarded to Walpole in 1726), the chairs were probably made specifically for the new house (built 1722--35). It has previously been proposed that the chairs too were made for the earlier house, as they are in an earlier style than the oil-gilt chairs that accompany the Green Velvet Bed (in the principal state apartment), which were completed c. 1731. However, the striped (ticking) base cloth used in at least some of the chairs is of identical pattern to that used in at least some of the latter suite, which strongly suggests that the two suites were made close together in time, and in the same workshop. (An alternative explanation -- that the chairs are indeed earlier, and were entirely reupholstered when given their green velvet covers -- seems unlikely, as they could scarcely have needed new upholstery within 10--15 years of being first made.)

This sofa is part of a large suite that was made for Houghton Hall in Norfolk. Houghton was built between 1722 and 1735 for Sir Robert Walpole, England's first prime minister. This suite furnished the second state apartment, which was initially planned as a large bedroom and smaller dressing room. Before the apartment was finished, however, the dressing room became the bedroom, and the bedroom was turned into a cabinet of paintings.

The bed, with colourful embroidered hangings, may have been made around 1715-20 for an earlier house at Houghton. The green velvet chairs were probably made in the late 1720s, in a slightly old-fashioned style to suit the bed. The use of burr-walnut veneer (cut from the root parts of the tree), with carved and gilt gesso ornament, is a mark of the very highest-quality chair-making of the period.

W.20-2002