Chair of mahogany inlaid with sycamore, rosewood and walnut, modern horsehair seat cover; designed by Owen Jones and made by Jackson & Graham for Eynsham Hall, British c. 1873

Square section frame and legs, curved top rail and H-shaped splat, shaped seat frame with square blocks above tapering front legs and curved back legs; upholstered seat with modern horsehair cover and braid trimming

Given by C L McDonough

This chair 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 large set of these chairs placed against the walls in all three rooms. The pattern of light and dark veneers on the frame of the chair is the same as that on the other chair and two armchairs, all of different design, from the same suite and now in the Museum's collection.

From 1946-1981 Eynsham Park was used as a police training college. The Home Office lent the chair to the Exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Arts, 1952-3, and subsequently gave it to the Museum.

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. Furniture from the house, including a wall bracket with the same veneered pattern as the chir, was lent to the Exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Arts, held at the Museum 1952-3.

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.

CIRC.523-1953