Armchair of walnut, with spiral turned uprights and strethers, the seat panel and panel of the carved filled with caning. English, 1670-1680. 76/2003

An armchair with low, curved back, of dark-stained, turned walnut with seat and back panel of caning. The front legs and the back uprights below seat rail are spiral turned (with a double bine) with rectangular sections at the joints. The back uprights above seat level are similarly turned, the top of each upright carved as a long section, octagonal in plan, surmounted by a turned, globe finial. The front legs continue above seat level as arm supports, spiral turned in the manner of the legs. The H-set stretchers and high-set back and front stretchers are also turned in a similar fashion. The rails to the trapezoidal seat, are moulded on the top, outer edges. The arms are flat and undecorated. They follow a shallow S-curve in plan. The arms are roughly chamfered below to appear thin from the side, except in the area of each arm support and to the front of it, where the full depth of each arm is carved simply to suggest a scrolling end to the arm. The woodwork of the chair has been French polished, possibly in the 19th century.

The chair is jointed with mortise and tenon joints, each pegged. The caning of the seat has been renewed and repairs to the back rail and the left (PR) rail was broken and repaired at the time of this damage. The right (PL) seat rail had been renewed at an earlier date. The chair is now sound except for one split to the back of the left (PR) back finial.

Purchased from a dealer Major Charles E. Earle, 25 Haverstock Hill, London NW. The chair (with W.65-1911) had belonged to a Mrs Cox, 16 Douglas Mansions, West End Road but had no earlier history. It was noted at the time of purchase that the seat needed to be re-caned (Nominal File: Earler, Charles E. Major, MA/1/E35, 1910-911.

re-caned by John Haynes & Sons

From the 1670s chairs with caned seats and backs became increasingly popular, not only among the aristocracy and gentry, but also among merchants and tradesmen. They were much cheaper than upholstered chairs and from the 1680s onwards enormous quantities were made in London, for export as well as for home consumption. This rather plain version was amongst the earliest designs for such chairs. A closely similar armchair, also with octagonal sections at the top of the back uprights, is in the collections of the Duke of Buccleuch at Boughton House, Northamptonshire. The chair is also similar in form to a child's chair in the V&A collections (W.20-1947).

W.64-1911