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Sofa

Sofa

  • Place of origin:

    London, England (made)

  • Date:

    ca. 1725-1730 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Roberts, Thomas (Jr) (attributed to, maker)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Main frame of beech, veneered in burr walnut and decorated with carved and gilt gesso; internal seat frame of beech; covers of green silk velvet, edged with silk braid; structural upholstery of linen webbing, linen (ticking) base cloth, horsehair stuffing and linen stuffing-covers, formed with a lip at the front edge

  • Credit Line:

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

  • Museum number:

    W.21-2002

  • Gallery location:

    In Storage

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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 bedroom houses a bed with colourful embroidered hangings, which may have been made around 1715-20 for an earlier house at Houghton. The green velvet chairs and sofas 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.

Place of Origin

London, England (made)

Date

ca. 1725-1730 (made)

Artist/maker

Roberts, Thomas (Jr) (attributed to, maker)

Materials and Techniques

Main frame of beech, veneered in burr walnut and decorated with carved and gilt gesso; internal seat frame of beech; covers of green silk velvet, edged with silk braid; structural upholstery of linen webbing, linen (ticking) base cloth, horsehair stuffing and linen stuffing-covers, formed with a lip at the front edge

Object history note

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.)

Descriptive line

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

Production Note

The suite is attributed to Thomas Robert junior on the basis of his bill to Sir Robert Walpole of ca. 1729. The bill records other chairs and sofas of similar description to these ones, though not this particular suite. The surviving bill chiefly concerns Roberts's work for Walpole's houses in London. Walpole appears to have destroyed the bills relating to Houghton.

Materials

Linen; Gilt; Walnut; Beech; Silk velvet; Horsehair; Silk braid

Techniques

Carved; Veneered

Categories

Furniture

Collection code

FWK

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Qr_O80347
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