Armchair fully upholstered with cream rep cover, legs of mahogany inlaid with sycamore, rosewood and walnut; designed by Owen Jones and made by Jackson & Graham for Eynsham Hall, British c. 1873

The armchair is fully upholstered and covered in a modern cream rep. It has a high back, which curves down into solid scrolled arms, and a broad seat with straight front edge. The straight, square section, front legs and curved, square section, back legs are veneered with darker inlay around the edge of the legs. Both front and back legs are fitted with brass castors.

Given by the Ministry of Works

This armchair is part of a large suite of furniture designed by Owen Jones and supplied by Jackson & Graham for the drawing room, music room and card room at Eynsham Hall. Jones's coloured elevations for these interconnecting rooms (Drawing No. 5, Eynsham Hall, Special Collections, Reading University Library, illustrated in Owen Jones Design, Ornament, Architecture, and Theory in an Age in Transition, by Carol A. Hrvol Flores, New York 2006, pl. 4.26) show a pair of armchairs in front of the fireplace in the music room, one of which may be this example. The pattern of light and dark veneers on the legs of the armchair is the same as that on the other armchair and two chairs, all of different design, from the same suite and now in the Museum's collection.

Associated with the armchair, when it was given to the Museum in 1954, were pieces of 'Sutherland', the silk designed by Owen Jones and woven by Warners in 1873. These pieces are now in the Textiles and Fashion Collection, T. 225, A & B-1953. According to Flores, p. 201, this pattern was originally supplied for furniture and wall hangings for the dining room at Eynsham Hall. After the demolition of Eynsham Hall and the completion of a new building in 1908, Jones's silks were rehung in the new library and dining room (Flores, p. 202).

James Mason, a mining engineer, and his brother-in-law, Francis Tress Barry, a merchant in Bilbao, established a company, Mason and Barry, which managed the San Domingo copper mines in Portugal from 1859. The success of this investment enabled Mason to buy the Eynsham Park estate in 1866. He commissioned extensive building plans and designs for interiors and furniture from Owen Jones and the work was finished shortly before Jones's death in 1874. After Mason's death in 1903, his son James Francis Mason demolished the house and replaced it with a new building, designed by the architect, Ernest George, which was completed in 1908. Jones's silks were apparently rehung in the new library and dining room.

Eynsham Hall was used by the Home Office as a police training college from 1946-1981. The armchair was one of four pieces of furniture from the house which was given to the Museum in 1954.

James Mason, the original owner of this chair, became wealthy through investments in copper mining in Brazil. He commissioned designs for interiors and furniture for his home, Eynsham Hall, Oxfordshire, from the architect and designer, Owen Jones, and the work was carried out from 1872 to 1874, by the London firm of Jackson & Graham. The chair is part of a suite of furniture in the Museum that was designed by Jones for Eynsham Hall. Jones, an enthusiast for historic styles, based his design for the shape of the back and seat, and the tapering front legs and curved back legs, on furniture of the 1790s. The use of dark and light, foreign and native timbers reflects the interest in unconventional combinations of materials typical of furniture produced by specialist firms such as Jackson & Graham. The armchair was previously covered in a woven silk, called Sutherland, designed by Jones and woven by Warners. Fragments of this silk cover survive in the Museum's collection of textiles.

CIRC.35-1954