Armchair thumbnail 1
Armchair thumbnail 2
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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Furniture, Room 133, The Dr Susan Weber Gallery

Armchair

ca. 1740 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This unusual chair, originally one of a set, was made for Sir Gregory Page, Baronet (1689-1775), whose crest is engraved in the brass marquetry in the back splat. The set may have been made for his palatial house in Greenwich, Wricklemarsh, which he built in the 1720s, ten or twenty years earlier than the likely date of these chairs. It was uncommon to display an armorial crest in chairs other than hall chairs (a distinctive type of chair with a solid wood back and seat, usually with painted armorials). Its presence here suggests that the set may have been intended for the gallery or the saloon in the state apartment.

The choice of a drop-in seat, rather than fixed upholstery, may have been prompted by its elaborately curved outline, which gives rise to numerous pleats in the cover where it turns over. On a drop-in frame these pleats could be tucked underneath, out of sight, whereas on a fixed frame they would inevitably be exposed. This feature made the drop-in seat popular with the 'compass'-seated chairs (usually shaped like half an hourglass - rounded in front and narrowed towards the back) that were particularly fashionable in the 1720s-40s.


Object details

Category
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 2 parts.

  • Armchair
  • Chair Seat
Materials and techniques
Main frame of carved rosewood (or padouk?) and carved walnut, rosewood (or padouk?) veneer - with marquetry of engraved brass - on walnut, and walnut veneer and mouldings on beech; constructed with mortise-and-tenon joints, half-lap joints and plugged screws. Drop-in seat frame walnut constructed with half-lap joints
Brief description
Elbow chair of rosewood and walnut with brass marquetry on the vase-shaped splat and a drop-in seat covered with floral needlework. English, ca. 1740.
Physical description
Design
A curvilinear armchair of rosewood (or padouk?) and walnut, both woods used in the solid and as veneer, and brass marquetry (in the rosewood veneer), with a drop-in seat covered in the original floral needlework. The rosewood-veneered back has a vase-shaped splat with a marquetry cartouche of engraved brass, centred on an armorial crest – that of Sir Gregory Page, 2nd Baronet, of Wricklemarsh. This is framed by S-scrolled uprights, lobed at the top, cusped at the arm-rests, and narrowed towards the bottom; at the top the lobed uprights are separated by the slightly convex top of the splat, giving the back-frame a distinctive ‘broken’ hoop-shaped outline. The shape of the walnut-veneered seat-frame echoes that of the back, the S-scrolled sides being interrupted by a short straight section at the front, cusped at the arm-supports and narrowed towards the back. The walnut open arms that join the back and seat are of elaborate dished and scrolled form, the arm-ends and arm-supports meeting at out-turned spiral scrolls that face the viewer. The seat is raised on carved legs of cabriole form with pad feet – the front upright, canted legs in walnut, the raked back legs in rosewood. The original needlework cover, depicting flowers spilling out of a vase, on a mound, has been conserved and re-fixed to the drop-in seat frame, over replaced structural upholstery. All four legs were formerly fitted with castors.

The scrolling outlines of the chair-frame are accentuated by moulded edges, for instance around both elements of the arms. Each arm is also carved with vivacious C-scrolls at the back of the dished arm-rests, on their top face, and with a scallop shell at the bottom of the arm-support, on the outer face, overlapping the seat. The scallop shell is recessed into the plane of the arm, suggesting that it may have been carved as an afterthought. The front legs are each carved on the knee with a stylized lambrequin, outlined with a curved moulding detailed at the top with gadrooning and foliage and ending in a small shell at the bottom; at the feet they are carved with an upright undulate leaf, framed by mirrored scrolled ribbons that extend around the leg, piercing a flower-head on each side and meeting at the back. The back legs are carved similarly at the feet, but less elaborately at the knees. Between the legs the bottom edge of the curved seat rails is finished with a cross-banded cavetto moulding; while the top edge of the seat rails has a cross-banded ovolo moulding (framing the drop-in seat), which continues up around the outer front edge of the back-frame. On the back face of the ‘pedestal’ (the seamless extension, upwards, of the back seat rail, and outwards, of the splat), is a smaller ovolo moulding of stepped and lobed outline – echoing the shape of the top rail – which tapers at each end to merge with the top edge of the back seat rail. On the front of the pedestal is a wide cartouche-shaped facing with a raised edge, scrolled at each end.

The marquetry and veneers
The brass marquetry in the splat comprises a grotesque composition of Indian masks and winged terms, birds and putti within scrolling strapwork and bellflower swags, supporting a phoenix with outspread wings (between the putti) and an urn finial, and centring on an oval escutcheon engraved with a crest, A demi horse forcene per pale dancetty, within a laurel wreath border. The rosewood ground to this marquetry cartouche is a single panel, separate from the surrounding veneer which is in two mirrored pieces, joined down the middle. The cartouche is bordered by brass and rosewood stringing, the rosewood being separate again, its grain following the curvature of the border. From these features it is clear that the brass decoration is indeed executed as marquetry (the cartouche assembled as a jigsaw and then set into the surrounding veneer), not inlay (which would be cut into the surface after the veneer had been glued to the splat).

The surrouning veneer on the front face of the splat, top rail and uprights appears to be cut from just the two mirrored sheets, with no joints other than the central division down the middle. On the back face the veneer is made up from a single (not mirrored) panel on the splat, but with more sections on the surrounding frame; there were probably seven additional sections originally, but this is partly obscured by later repairs.

The veneer on the seat rails is in burr walnut on the front and around as far as the arms, but in straight, vertically grained walnut from the arms to the back edge of the seat. This is a characteristic treatment of high-quality English chairs of this period.

The Needlework
The floral needlework, executed in tent-stitch on a linen(?) canvas, depicts an array of flowers spilling out of a two-handled basket, which sits on a mound covered in smaller flowers, set against a blue (sky?) background. The needlework follows almost exactly the same shape as the drop-in seat itself, leaving raw canvas edges just out of sight on the underside of the frame. So it was clearly worked to fit this chair, and is almost certainly the original cover.

Construction
The chair is made of a curious mixture of solid rosewood for the back legs, solid walnut for the arms and front legs, walnut veneered with rosewood on all sides of the back except the thick inside edges (where the walnut is exposed), and beech veneered with walnut for the front and side seat rails, while the back seat rail is beech veneered (like the rest of the chair-back) with rosewood. The drop-in seat-frame is made of walnut. There are differences also in the treatment of the mouldings on the main seat-frame: these are applied on the front and side seat rails – the top ovolo moulding (on the top face of the rail) in cross-banded veneer, the bottom cavetto moulding (on the outer face) in solid cross-grained walnut – but on the back seat rail the shaped ovolo moulding behind the pedestal is formed integrally with the rail, and veneered (again cross-banded). The front legs are pieced out at the top with small ‘ears’ of solid walnut on either side; the equivalent ear-blocks for the back legs are integral to the beech back and side seat rails, with carved facings of walnut(?) under the side rails and rosewood(?) under the back rail (the nature of the woods obscured by accumulated polish in the carving).

To effect the transition from the solid rosewood back legs to the rosewood-veneered walnut back-frame, a curious double-scarfed joint has been made: each rosewood leg is scarfed at a quite low angle to a walnut extension, which is scarfed at a steeper angle to the walnut upright member of the back-frame, and the joints are concealed by veneer except on the inside edge. The uprights and the splat are all half-lapped to the top rail (these joints likewise exposed on the unveneered inside edge). The splat appears to be joined by two squarish tenons to the back seat rail (the mortises, but not the tenons, penetrating the bottom of the rail). The pedestal at the bottom is formed first by inserting infill pieces between the splat and the uprights, and then – after veneering the chair-back – fitting the full-width carved piece into the angle between the extended splat and the back rail. The front edge of the carved facing overhangs the front face of the back rail, but most of the overhang is filled, underneath, by a walnut bar glued and nailed to the front face of the rail. The back and side seat rails are both tenoned to the solid, rosewood section of the back uprights. At the front corners the front seat rail is tenoned to the side rails, and the front legs are tenoned through these joints. Each front corner has also been strengthened (later?) by a wide, black-stained beech(?) block, glued and now screwed to the back of the leg, spanning the joints with the pieced-out ‘ears’.

Each arm-support is tenoned to the side seat rail (in a needlessly long mortise, which has been plugged on top of the rail, behind the tenon; while the lines scribed on the rail extend a long way in front of the tenon). The arm-rest is fixed at both ends with plugged screws: at the front it is screwed down to the arm-support, and plugged on the top face; at the back the upright is screwed in to the arm-rest, and plugged on the inside. (This plug intersects the veneer on the back face of the chair-back; so the chair-back must have been veneered before the arms were attached.) The arms are pieced out in numerous places: at the bottom of the arm-support, in an oblique-angled joint across the front; at the back of the arm-rest, where a small piece laps over the front face of the back upright; and at the outset arm-ends, each essentially formed with a single carved piece, fitted around the joined arm-rest and support. On the right arm there is an additional facing on the back of the fitted piece, to complete the back scroll.

The seat rails are built up to contain the drop-in seat by the moulding applied to the top of the front and side rails, and by the bar fixed to the front face of the back rail (beneath the overhanging pedestal facing), providing a continuous flush surface with the front of the back uprights.

The drop-in seat, in walnut, is made with side rails half-lapped to both the front and back rails. The rails are unusually thin, precluding the use of tenon joints. Adding to the weakness, the inside edges have been sawn out to follow the outside curvature of the frame. As a result the back half of each side rail has split along the grain, at the weak point caused by cutting out this curve. This seat-frame may be a replacement – a possibility suggested not only by its weak construction, but also by its manufacture in walnut (where beech would be more usual) and the fact that it has no chisel-struck roman numeral by which to match it up to the chair-frame (which is numbered ‘IIII’). Yet the manufacture of the drop-in frame appears to be of considerable age, with visible hand-saw marks and holes from hand-cut nails. Most of the bottom surface, however, is concealed by a new lining to the needlework cover, stapled in place.

Upholstery
The upholstery is supported on 20th-century webbing and base cloth, partly obscured by a piece of thick synthetic gauze underneath, which was presumably introduced to take the main strain of the upholstery. To insert this, the webbing and base cloth must have been released and then refixed on top. The seat-pad is skate-stuffed (with a simple stuffed pad, not shaped by any stitching). The stuffing itself is wholly obscured by the other upholstery layers, but it is likely to be horsehair, probably held in place by a linen or cotton cover tacked to the frame. The present stuffing may be slightly fuller than the original, as a row of rusted nail-holes in the needlework cover, which were probably on the underside originally, are now on the upright edge of the frame (just concealed by the rebate moulding on the chair). Alternatively, it is possible that the cover was originally nailed to the upright edge rather than to the underside, for the stuffing is not unusually full, and to pull the cover further over the bottom edge would obscure significant parts of the needlework design. The needlework cover has been lined with new canvas and couched down to this in parallel lines of stitching (running from front to back). At the back edge a dark blue cotton fly has been machine-stitched to the original needlework canvas, which is slightly short at this edge. The cover is now fixed in place by stapling through the new canvas lining (all round) and through the cotton fly (at the back) to the underside of the frame.

Condition
There are several replaced sections of carving, moulding and veneer: (1) the top of the carved relief form on the front of the pedestal (now much darker than the original wood); (2) at the back right leg, the walnut facing to the side ear, and possibly the ear-block supporting it, which (unlike the equivalent support on the left leg) is not integral to the side rail; (3) at the right end of the front seat rail, sections of both the top and bottom mouldings (both replaced in solid walnut, though the top moulding was originally veneered); (4) a large section of veneer in the right half of the top rail, and several other smaller veneer patches. Losses that have not been replaced include the straight central section of the bottom moulding to the seat; here the edges of the adjacent moulding have been rounded to obviate the loss. The carved flower and ‘ribbon’ on the outer face of the front right foot is also missing; it appears to have been scraped and rubbed down, perhaps to tidy up an area of damage. As noted above, the block spanning the back of each front leg joint may be an addition or replacement.

Holes in the underside of all four feet attest to the former fixing of castors, possibly two sets.
Dimensions
  • Height: 91cm
  • Width: 63.5cm
  • Depth: 59.5cm
  • Seat frame depth: 51cm
  • To top of upholstered seat height: 43cm
  • Seat rail height: 39cm
Gallery label
  • CHAIR Carved rosewood, inlaid with engraved brass; the seat covered with contemporary needlework. English, about 1735-40 The oval esctcheon that centres the inlaid brass decoration is engraved with the owner's crest. Brass inlaid furniture such as this has recently been associated with the workshop of John Channon.(1968)
  • ARMCHAIR English, 1725-1750 Carved and veneered rosewood inlaid with engraved brass cartouche. The chair is of a baroque form, and the inlaid cartouche derives from the ornament of Jean Bérain. It incorporates an armorial crest 'issuing from a wreath a demi horse forcene party per pale indented'. The seat rail is of beech veneered with rosewood. The knees and toes of the cabriole legs are, like the back and arms of the chair, carved in solid rosewood with acanthus leaves. The drop in floral seat is covered with contemporary floral needlework.(1992)
  • ARMCHAIR ENGLISH; about 1740 Padouk, with veneered beech seat rail and engraved brass inlay. Of unusual form, the chair is similar to one advertised by John Hodson of the Looking Glass and Cabinet Warehouse, Frith Street, Soho, between 1727 and 1744. The inlaid cartouche, which incorporates an armorial crest, derives from the engraved ornament of Jean Bérain. The birds on the bottom of the inlaid panel are similar to those on a bureau stamped 'J. Graveley'. The seat is covered with contemporary needlework.(1995)
  • ARMCHAIR ENGLISH; about 1735 Rosewood inlaid with engraved brass; the seat covered with contemporary needlework. Attributed to the workshop of John Channon of St. Martin's Lane, London. The oval escutcheon that centres the inlaid brass decoration is engraved with the owner's crest. Given by Brigadier W.E. Clark, C.M.G., D.S.O., through the National Art-Collections Fund.(pre October 2000)
  • Armchair About 1740 England (London) Frame: Indian rosewood, mahogany and beech, with veneer of Indian rosewood and walnut (possibly replaced) Panel on central splat: Indian rosewood inlaid with brass Upholstery: walnut seat frame (possibly replaced) with under upholstery (replaced) and needlework cover (original) Gift of Brigadier W.E. Clark CMG, DSO through the Art Fund Museum no. W.32-1959 Drop-in seats, as used on this chair, allowed the upholstery and the chair frame to be worked on separately. They also may have offered another advantage: on the curved seats fashionable from the 1720s, it was easier to conceal pleats of cloth on a drop-in seat than on a fixed frame. This seat is stuffed with a simple, unstitched pad, probably of horsehair. (01/12/2012)
Credit line
Given by Brigadier W. E. Clark CMG, DSO through Art Fund
Object history
The crest which features in the inlaid brass decoration indicates that the chair belonged to Sir Gregory Page, second baronet (1689-1775), a wealthy collector of paintings and the builder of Wricklemarsh, Greenwich, a fine Palladian house of the 1720s, designed by the architect John James (ca.1672-1746).

Object sampling carried out by Jo Darrah, V&A Science; drawer/slide reference 4/33 and 4/60.
Production
The rosewood (or padouk) back legs possibly made in China
Summary
This unusual chair, originally one of a set, was made for Sir Gregory Page, Baronet (1689-1775), whose crest is engraved in the brass marquetry in the back splat. The set may have been made for his palatial house in Greenwich, Wricklemarsh, which he built in the 1720s, ten or twenty years earlier than the likely date of these chairs. It was uncommon to display an armorial crest in chairs other than hall chairs (a distinctive type of chair with a solid wood back and seat, usually with painted armorials). Its presence here suggests that the set may have been intended for the gallery or the saloon in the state apartment.

The choice of a drop-in seat, rather than fixed upholstery, may have been prompted by its elaborately curved outline, which gives rise to numerous pleats in the cover where it turns over. On a drop-in frame these pleats could be tucked underneath, out of sight, whereas on a fixed frame they would inevitably be exposed. This feature made the drop-in seat popular with the 'compass'-seated chairs (usually shaped like half an hourglass - rounded in front and narrowed towards the back) that were particularly fashionable in the 1720s-40s.
Bibliographic references
  • Hayward, John, 'English Brass-Inlaid Furniture', in Victoria and Albert Museum Bulletin, January 1965, vol. I, no. 1, pp.10-23, figs. 4 and 8.
  • Gilbert, Christopher and Murdoch, Tessa eds., John Channon and brass-inlaid furniture 1730-1760. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, in association with Leeds City Art Galleries and the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1993. ISBN 0-300-05812-8, fig. 173, pp. 126-9, 160.
Collection
Accession number
W.32:1-1959

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Record createdJuly 10, 1998
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