Italian, 1540-1560, 49/3234

One of a set of nine carved and partly gilded sgabello chairs.

Of boarded construction, with the back tenoned through the seat and pegged, and the front and rear supports braced by two plain side rails, with a shaped lower edge. The back of cartouche form, with a central grotesque male mask set within a heart-shaped area formed by two scrolls carved with undulating vine-stem ornament, the scrolls resting on a shallow gadrooned plinth; and a double-scroll pediment containing a six-pointed star below a spear-tip finial, with a gadrooned moulding along the bottom of the pediment; the rear face of the back plain. The seat board of rectangular form, cut across the front corners, and with a tongue extending behind to receive the back tenon, with gadrooning along the sides and front edges. The design of the front support mirrors the back, but with two animal feet below, and with a carved freize above, with three rosettes alternating with opposed trefoil motifs; the rear face plain. The rear support has the same outline as the front, but is plain front and back.

Stretchers 3.8 wide
Dark stain overall

Lacks an obv wear or repairs.
Gesso and parcel gilt
A single modern peg holds the back into the seat (ie loose)

This chair was on loan to Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery (probably from c. 1951 to 2002) and Buckland Abbey (2002 to 2013).

See Clive Wainwight, 'Models of Inspiration' in Country Life, June 9, 1988 pp 266-267 which discusses the acquisition of Soulages' collection.

Probably early 19th century based on a late 16th century chair

Italian chairs made from vase-shaped boards of wood have long been known as sgabelli, a term ultimately derived from the word scabellum (Latin for 'stool'). They were often carved with fantastic monsters and grotesques, like this example which forms part of a set that belonged to the Steno family of Venice, whose emblem, a star, is emblazoned on the crest. According to John Hungerford Pollen, writing in 1874, the Steno house "remained furnished in the old way down to modern times", but the chairs in this set are almost certainly copies of an untraced earlier example. They were later acquired by Jules Soulages (1803-1856), a lawyer from Toulouse, whose collection was bought piecemeal by this museum, after it had been exhibited at Marlborough House between December 1856 and January 1857.

5694-1859