Object Type
This chair was designed for Horace Walpole by his friend, the designer Richard Bentley. Walpole asked Bentley to design a chair with a back like the outline of a Gothic window, and which would be very lightweight, painted black, with a rush seat. The chair was made by the fashionable London cabinet-maker William Hallett.
People
Horace Walpole (1717-1797), the antiquarian, collector and novelist, was the son of Sir Robert Walpole, the first British Prime Minister. He collected antique furniture but also commissioned new furniture for his own use. He opened his house to visitors and became one of the best-known exponents of the Gothic Revival style.
Place
Eight of these chairs were made to furnish the Great Parlour at Horace Walpole's country residence, Strawberry Hill, in Twickenham. Walpole devoted much time to modifying his house in the Gothic Revival style. To advise him, he convened a 'Committee on Taste' including the designer Richard Bentley and the amateur architect, John Chute.
Time
The Gothic Revival style was fashionable in the 1750s and 1760s, mainly for the decoration of interiors. Horace Walpole was unusual in that he remodelled his entire house in the Gothic style, relying on his own observations of Gothic churches and engravings of Medieval architecture, rather than on contemporary pattern books.
Physical description
The chair is painted black to imitate ebony. It has a back in the form of a gothic window, and has a drop-in seat with a black horsehair top cover. The seat rails have gothic trefoil mouldings beneath them and the legs are tapered at the bottom. The cross-shaped finial carved in the shape of leaves, which is present on others in the set, is missing from this example
[Chair seat] The seat comprises a pine frame with front and back rails tenonned into the side rails. The frame is chamfered on the outer top edge to take a stitched rolled edge. There are two generations of nailings into the chamfered edge while there is only one row of nailing on the upright outside edge for the top stuffing cover. On the underside on the left rail is nailing for two top covers, including the present one, but possibly more in the back rail - does this relate to a prior use of the wood used for the back rail? The seat is now on its second complete upholstery, with the possible exception of the webbing and base cloth.
The present upholstery comprises a 1 1/2 chevron webbing with a black jute warp and bleached linen selvage warp and an undyed jute weft. There are three strips of webbing in each direction. The base cloth is of a plain weave and is made entirely of jute. On top of the base cloth is the first stuffing of horsehair. This is covered in linen or hemp with a stitched rolled edge comprising a single row of top stitching. Above this is the second stuffing of horse hair with white wool wadding on top of it and no second stuffing cover. On top of this is a machine-made tapestry top cover.
In the upright edge of the seat frame, as well as a single row of nails for the top stuffing cover that went with the original upholstery, there are some small tack holes. These may have been made by temporary tacks for one of the top covers.
Despite being on its second scheme of upholstery, the seat is nineteenth-century, not earlier. This deduction is based on the presence of the two separate rows of nail holes on the frame both being located on the chamfered edge. This implies that the first scheme of upholstery also had a stitched rolled edge and therefore that the seat must be nineteenth-century.
Place of Origin
(made)
Date
1755 (made)
Artist/maker
Bentley, Richard, born 1708 - died 1782 (designer)
William Hallett, born 1702 - died 1781 (maker)
Walpole, Horace, born 1717 - died 1797 (designer)
Materials and Techniques
Beechwood, painted black to imitate ebony, the seat covered in black horsehair
Dimensions
Height: 125 cm, Width: 61 cm front, maximum, Depth: 52 cm
[Chair seat] Height: 4 cm, Width: 52.5 cm, Depth: 43.5 cm
Object history note
This chair was one of the furnishings of Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, the country house of Horace Walpole. Walpole, the antiquarian, collector and novelist, and the son of Sir Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister, devoted much time to modifying and enlarging Strawberry Hill in the Gothic Revival Style from 1748 onwards. He furnished the house with his collections of antique furniture and with new commissions. In order to advise him on the transformation of the house, Walpole convened what he termed a 'Committee on Taste' comprising himself, the designer Richard Bentley, and the amateur architect and owner of The Vyne, Hampshire, John Chute, whom Walpole had met on his Grand Tour. Chute, described by Walpole as '...my oracle in taste...the genius that presided over poor Strawberry!', was resposibile for the exterior of the building, while Bentley produced designs for interior fittings based on engravings of ecclesiastical details which appeared in topographical books in Walpole's own library.
Bentley produced the design for this chair, which was one a set of eight made for the Great Parlour. Walpole suggested that they should be based on the outline and tracery of a Gothic window. He wrote to Bentley on 27 July 1754: 'My idea is, a black back, higher, but not much higher that common chairs, and extremely light, with matted bottoms...I have been trying to make out something like windows...I would have only a sort of black sticks pierced through...' Walpole ordered the chairs from William Hallett, a fashionable cabinet-maker in St Martin's Lane, London, noting the details in his account book: '1755 Sept. 20 pd Hallett fr 8 black Gothic chairs at 3-15-0, 30-00-0.'
Sold from Strawberry Hill 1842, day 19, lot 49 or lot 52, bought Piggott. Richmond.
In the collection of David Hicks, 1979. Sold Sotheby's, Britwell House, David and Pamela Hicks, 20-22 March 1979, lot 11. Bought by Simon Redburn Fine Arts Ltd, by whom sold to the V&A.
Four chairs from this set are in the collections of The Lewis Walpole Library, Farmington, Conn. USA
Historical significance: The chair is significant as one of the original furnishing of Strawberry Hill, which has a prominent place in the history of the Gothic Revival in the eighteenth century, partly owing to Walpole's talent for self-publicity. With an eye to posterity he left detailed descriptions of his work at Strawberry Hill in the form of accounts, letters and even a published guide. He welcomed curious visitors to the house. In choosing to take his inspiration for his house and furnishings from the Gothic features found in medieval churches, Walpole was subscribing to an already popular contemporary fashion. He was unusual, however, in that he remodelled his entire house in the Gothic Revivial style, rather simply one or two rooms, and that he looked directly at published engravings of medieval architecture as source material, rather than relying on contemporary pattern books. He became one of the best-known exponents of the style in the eighteenth century.
[Chair seat] This is a replacement seat made by the Museum when the chair was acquired.
[Chair seat] This is an unpholstered drop-in seat which was fitted on the chair when it was acquired but which was replaced by the Museum.
[Chair finial] This is the finial that was replaced when the new finial was carved following a mould being taken of other chairs in the set in 2002.
[Chair seat] Research for the exhibition, Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill, into the history of the set of chairs, to which W. 79-1979 belongs, indicated that the original drop in seat may not have been rushed. The seat may have been upholstered with a patterned top cover in a dark colour, possibly a woven horsehair. This new drop in seat, covered in black horsehair supplied by John Boyd & Co., was made in 2010 by Yukiko Yoshi, a student of furniture conservation and historic furniture making at West Dean College. Her tutor, Michael Podmanicsky, supervised the project.
Descriptive line
Gothic revival chair, the back based upon gothic window tracery. English (London), 1755. Made by William Hallett to a design by Horace Walpole and Richard Bentley, for Strawberry Hill.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Snodin, Michael, ed., with the assistance of Cynthia Roman. Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill. New Have and London: The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University, Yale Center for British Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum, in association with Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12574-0. Catalogue of the exhibition held at the The Yale Center for British Art, 2009 and the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2010, cat. 62, pp. 288
In this catalogue both Walpole and Bentley are given credit for the design, following the 1774 Description of Strawberry Hill
Exhibition History
Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill (Victoria and Albert Museum 01/01/2010-31/12/2010)
Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill (Victoria and Albert Museum 06/03/2010-04/07/2010)
Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill (Victoria and Albert Museum 06/03/2010-04/07/2010)
Gothick 1720-1840 (Royal Pavilion 01/01/1975-31/12/1975)
Labels and date
CHAIR, ENGLISH; about 1754. Ebonised beechwood, orignally fitted with a rush seat. One of a set of eight chairs from Horace Walpole's Great Parlour at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham.. In July 1754 Walpole planned the design of some chairs, the backs of which were taller than usual and were based on Gothic window frames. The chair was designed by Richard Bentley and supplied by the cabinet-maker William Hallett, who charged £3.15.0 for each of them in September 1755. The set was sold at the Strawberry Hill sale in 1842. Four of the chairs are now in the Lewis Walpole Library at Farmington, Connecticut. (John Hardy) [1979]
CHAIR
ENGLISH; about 1754
Ebonised beechwood with a rush seat
One of a set of eight chairs from Horace Walpole's Great parlour at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham. In July 1754, Walpole planned the design of some chairs, the backs of which were taller than usual and were based on Gothic window frames. The chair was designed by Richard Bentley and supplied by the cabinet-maker William Hallett, who charge £3.15.0 for each of them in September 1755.
The set was sold at the Strawberry Hill sale in 1842. Four of the chairs are now in the Lewis Walpole Library at Farmington, Connecticut
Purchased by the Brigadier Clark Fund through the National Art-Collections Fund. [pre October 2000]
Production Note
Reason For Production: Private
Materials
Beech; Rush
Techniques
Carving; Painting (coating)
Categories
Furniture; Woodwork; British Galleries
Collection code
FWK
