Stool of carved and gilt wood, upholstered with a valance of crimson velvet and a loose cushion of crimson silk velvet paned with two figured silk velvets, trimmed with coloured braids

A stool of carved and gilt wood upholstered with a valance and a loose cushion of red silk velvet trimmed with silk braids, and with other textiles. The carved beech frame has pierced, tapered legs carved with foliage and lambrequins, joined by scrolling X-form stretchers which meet at a central vase finial. The valance is fitted to an upholstered lip on all four sides, within which the cushion, of boxed construction, sits. The gilding of the frame has been renewed.
The cushion has a central rectangular pane of a green-ground silk velvet, with mitred borders of an orange-ground silk textile (almost certainly also velvet), now very degraded (especially the orange borders). This sits within wider borders of a later red velvet, which are also mitred, and the vertical box panels are of the same red velvet. The horizontal seam betwen the top borders and the upright borders is concealed by a wide braid, and the upright and mitred seams were formerly covered by narrow braid, now missing (but which survives in part on the companion stool, W.14-2009). The trimmings on this cushion differ from those on the companion stool, and neither precisely reflects the original arrangement. The underside of the cushion is covered in red silk over a red worsted.
The valanced cover has a central panel of two layers of silk (blue-green below, pinkish red above), and red ribbon tied in a bow at each corner. To each ribbon is tied a string or cord, which in turn is tied through two round 'button-holes' in the silk panels and their hemp(?) lining to the base cloth and webbing below. The velvet valances are also lined with hemp(?), and on the innermost face with a glazed red worsted (the hemp(?) thus sandwiched between the velvet and the worsted).

Acquired with support from Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation), The Brigadier Clark Fund, and the London Historic House Museums Trust in memory of Wendy and George Levy

This stool and its pair, W.14-2009, formed part of the State Bedroom suite at Warwick Castle, where the bed, two elbow chairs and four other stools remain, together with one of a pair of settees that were made in the late 18th century to suit the newly created antiquarian interior. (The second settee was sold from the Castle at Sotheby's, London, 10 September 2007, lot 85.)

The suite, (originally consisting of a bed, armchair and four stools), was supplied in 1701 or 1702 for William III’s Little Bedchamber at Hampton Court Palace, adapted and extended with another armchair and two more stools in 1703 for Queen Anne’s State Bedchamber at Kensington Palace, and with two additional settees at Warwick Castle, probably made for the second Earl of Warwick in the late 1770s, and with a Regency scheme of partial re-upholstery between c.1790 and c. 1820, most likely shortly before 1802 and again for the second Earl.

The suite was restored when it was introduced to the state bedroom at Warwick Castle, around 1800. The re-gilding of the frames, in oil gilding, probably dates from this time. (This oil gilding is retained on the present stool but has been removed on the companion stool (W.14-2009.) At the same time the upholstery was partly renewed, with new red velvet on the top and sides of the cushion and on the valance below. During recent conservation some of the original textiles were discovered on the companion stool (W.14–2009), including two colourful figured velvets on the cushion sides. The threadbare bordered panel on the top of the cushions is in remnants of the same two velvets, which were evidently used in the same position in the original scheme; and the top originally had outer borders of dark crimson velvet, remnants of which survive. The valance panels were probably in the same dark crimson velvet originally. In the restoration of c. 1800 the original trimmings as well as the top bordered panel were re-used.

This stool, together with W.14-2009, was sold from Warwick Castle, Sotheby’s, London, 4 June 2008, lot 30. The application to export them was refused by the Minister for a period of five months, to allow a British institution to match the price that they had fetched at auction, as a result of which they were purchased by the V&A.


Nineteenth-century accounts of the State Bedroom at Warwick Castle

William Hopton(?), 1807 Manuscript
‘State Bed Room
… The Bed & furniture were given by the present King, to the late Earl of Warwick. It belonged to Queen Ann. – The Tapes.try was made at Brussels in 1604. …’
[Warwick Library: Z4244868, untitled manuscript inscribed on flyleaf in a 20th-century hand, ‘apparently written by William Hopton, 1807’ (with dedication to the Earl of Warwick on following page), p. 15.]

1806 inventory needs to be checked (Warwickshire County Record Office: CR1886/BB 342 TN 1053).

1809 inventory
‘Large 4 Post Bedstead with wrought Velvett and bordered with Crimson lined with Green Satin and fring’d / 2 White Mattresses / 2 Elbow Chairs to match the Bed / 2 large Settees. Do [ditto] / 6 Stools with Cushions Do.’
[Warwickshire County Record Office: CR 1886/Box 446]

William Field, An Historical … Account of the town and castle of Warwick … (1815), pp. 192–93 (evidently derived in part from Hopton)

STATE BED ROOM
The bed and furniture of this room [the State Bed Room] are of crimson velvet, embroidered with green and yellow silk. They belonged to Queen Anne: and were given, by the present King, to the late Earl of Warwick. The room is hung with tapestry, which appears by the date of it, to have been made at Brussels, 1604. It is supposed to represent the Gardens of Versailles, as they were at that time. – The chimney-piece, executed by WESTMACOTT, is remarkably handsome. It is formed of verd antique and white marble. Two black marble vases stand on its mantle; and a bronze copy of the Borghese Vase on the hearth.

HERE is a Cabinet highly curious, made of ebony, inlaid with wood of various shades and colours, beautifully representing flowers, birds, and various animals. On this Cabinet, stands a chrystal cup, mounted, between two engraved chrystal vials. Behind, are a bronze lion and lioness. On another cabinet, opposite the window, is an essence vase, of the old enamel, on copper mounted on or moulou.

Charles William Spicer, History of Warwick Castle (1844), pp. 31–32
‘This Chamber [the State Bed Room] … measures 24 feet square, and is high in proportion. The walls are hung with finely preserved tapestry, worked at Brussels about the year 1604, and on the border is inscribed “Franciscus Spiringius.” The bed itself, in perfect harmony with the other furniture, is of salmon-coloured damask, and having coverlids and counterpanes of satin, all richly embroidered and bordered with crimson velvet; this, with the corresponding chairs, sofas, and fauteuils, formerly belonged to Queen Anne, and were presented to the Warwick family by George III. Opposite the bed is a beautiful chimney-piece, executed by Westmacott in verd antique and white marble.’

The upholstery method -- with a cushion resting in a well over a four-sided valance -- is a very rare survival. Another upholstered stool fitted with a cushion – but a much thinner one – is shown in a Baroque interior of 1721 by Jan Vierpyl (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; see Charles Saumarez Smith, Eighteenth-Century Decoration: Design and the Domestic Interior in England (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1993), p. 87, fig. 66). Even more remarkable is the use of ribbon bows to tie the valance down at the four corners of its platform, since these would never be seen when the cushion was in place -- and the depth of the well is such that the stool could never be used without the cushion. Although we now see this in the stool as restored around 1800, it almost certainly replicates the technique used when the stool was first made around 1700--10, since remnants of a blue ribbon survive at the corners, sewn to the stuffing-cover beneath the valance. No other instance of this usage is known, but a parallel custom is the contemporary (early 18th-century) use of decorative tufting on the seat platforms of sofas, beneath a deep cushion. Examples of the latter usage are a settee of ca. 1700--05 from Hampton Court, Herefordshire, in the V&A (Museum no. W.15-1945), and another ca. 1710 at Lyme Park, Cheshire (see Lucy Wood, The Upholstered Furniture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2008), p. 22, figs 30--31, 54).

This stool and its pair (Museum no. W.14-2009) form part of an important bedroom suite (with a four-post bed, two armchairs and four other stools), which has been at Warwick Castle since the late 18th century.

The suite, originally consisting of a bed, armchair and four stools, was supplied in 1701 or 1702 for William III’s Little Bedchamber at Hampton Court Palace. It was adapted and extended with another armchair and two more stools in 1703 for Queen Anne’s State Bedchamber at Kensington Palace. George III gave the suite to the first Earl of Warwick, and two settees were added at Warwick Castle, probably for the second Earl of Warwick in the late 1770s. The expanded suite was restored and partially reupholstered between c.1790 and c. 1820, most likely shortly before 1802 and again for the second Earl.

The stools are upholstered in a way that was unknown before it came to light on these pieces, with a loose valanced cover that is tied down over an upholstered border (or 'lip') by ribbon bows. These decorative bows, positioned in the corners of the central well, are then concealed by the cushion that is placed on top. This remarkable treatment was probably always exceptional, and it may now be a unique survival. This stool displays the reworked upholstery covers that were applied in about 1800. The upholsterer was careful to repeat the unusual structure of the original upholstery and to incorporate some of the original figured velvets and trimmings.

W.15:1 to 3-2009