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On loan

  • On display at Spencer House, London

Armchair

1759-1765 (made)
Artist/Maker
Stuart, James 'Athenian' (designer)
Place of origin
London (made)

This armchair is part of a set of seat furniture made for the Painted Room at Spencer House, London. The design is exceptionally bold, with lion legs at both back and front. James Stuart, the architect who designed the house and many of its furnishings was one of the first architects in Britain to work in the new Neoclassical style. For the Painted Room he had the walls painted with arabesques and oval panels, imitating the style of decoration found during the archaeological excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii. His design for the seat furniture probably took its inspiration from Greek and Roman thrones in stone. These often showed seats with legs and arms as mythical beasts.

This seat is now once more on show at Spencer House, see references.

Object details

Category
Furniture
Object type
Armchair
Materials and techniques
Armchair in carved and gilded limewood; the silk damask upholstery is modern
Limewood
Gilding
Carving
Brief description
Armchair in carved and gilded limewood, upholstered with modern green silk damask. From a set of seat furniture designed by James Stuart for Spencer House, London. English, 1759.
Physical description
A large giltwood armchair featuring a cartouche-shaped splat with carved guilloche border, curvilinear armrest supports and a heavily fluted seat frame with a serpentine front, mounted on naturalistically carved lion’s legs in a cornerstone position.
Dimensions
  • Height: 94.5cm
  • Width: 66cm
  • Depth: 63cm
Dimensions from file: 94cm high x 65cm wide x 65cm deep
Style
Neoclassical
Gallery label
(1981)
ARMCHAIR. ENGLISH; about 1759. Gilt wood with modern crimson silk damask.
Part of a set of seat furniture, comprising four gilded “lion” sofas and six armchairs, which are very early examples of furniture designed in the neo-classical style. The remainder of the set is on loan to Kenwood House, and is displayed in the library.
The set was designed in the late 1750’s by the architect James Stuart for the drawing-room at Spencer House, the first Earl Spencer’s Palladian mansion overlooking Green Park, London. Stuart had recently returned from Greece, where he had made drawings of the Athenian antiquities, and in the drawing-room at Spencer House he not only painted the walls and ceiling, but also designed all the furnishings in the classical style.
The sides of the sofas are formed by griffins or winged lions with long necks. The griffin supports were inspired by a marble Hellenistic throne, like the one in the Arundel collection, which was presented to the University of Oxford in 1755, and can now be seen at the Ashmolean Museum. The sofas and chairs are supported on “lion” legs, their seat and frames being heavily fluted and their backs ornamented with guilloche borders.
In the 18th century Spencer House was considered to be one of the most splendidly furnished houses in Europe, and the furnishings were described by Arthur Young in his “Tour through Southern Counties” 1772 as “astonishingly beautiful” and superior in “richness, elegance and taste” to anything he had ever seen.
Bought with a contribution from the Brigadier Clark Fund, through the National Art-Collections Fund.
(pre October 2000)
ARMCHAIR
ENGLISH; ABOUT 1759
Gilt wood with modern crimson silk damask

Part of a set of seat furniture designed by the architect James Stuart (1713-88) for the Drawing Room at Spencer House, London. The remainder of the set is on loan to Kenwood House and is displayed in the Library.

Bought with a contribution from the Brigadier Clark Fund through that National Art-Collections Fund.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Brigadier Clark Fund through Art Fund
Object history
Purchased in 1977 from Earl Spencer [1976/2628]. On long-term loan to Spencer House since 1993.

This style of chair has proved to have enduring appeal. In February 2024, furniture-makers Brights of Nettlebed were advertising a reproduction chair of similar design, calling it ‘The James Giltwood Chair’.
Production
Production of the suite of seat furniture for the Painted Room has been attributed to the partnership of John Gordon and John Taitt, well-known London cabinet makers (Friedman, p. 187; Thornton & Hardy, p. 450). The original upholstery was green damask with brass tacks. In 1772 the firm of Gordon & Taitt provided loose, crimson covers for the set.
Association
Spencer House
Summary
This armchair is part of a set of seat furniture made for the Painted Room at Spencer House, London. The design is exceptionally bold, with lion legs at both back and front. James Stuart, the architect who designed the house and many of its furnishings was one of the first architects in Britain to work in the new Neoclassical style. For the Painted Room he had the walls painted with arabesques and oval panels, imitating the style of decoration found during the archaeological excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii. His design for the seat furniture probably took its inspiration from Greek and Roman thrones in stone. These often showed seats with legs and arms as mythical beasts.

This seat is now once more on show at Spencer House, see references.
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Joseph Friedman, Spencer House - Chronicle of a Great London Mansion, (London, 1993)
  • Peter Thornton & John Hardy, ‘The Spencer Furniture at Althorp II’, Apollo, (June, 1968), pp. 440-51
  • Arts Council of Great Britain, The Age of Neo-Classicism, Exhibition Catalogue, (London, 1972), pp. 780-81
  • Maurice Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, (London: V&A, 1982), p. 9
  • David Udy, ‘The Classical Sources of English Neo-classical Furniture’, Arte Illustrata, No. 52, February 1973, pp. 96-104
  • National Gallery of Art, The Treasure Houses of Britain: Five Hundred Years of Private Patronage and Art Collecting, Exhibition Catalogue, (Washington, 1985), pp. 343-44
  • Christopher Wilk (ed.), Western Furniture 1350 to the Present Day, (London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 1996), p. 114
  • Clifford Musgrave, Adam and Hepplewhite and other Neo-Classical Furniture, (London: Faber, 1966), Plate 80, P. 197
  • Susan Weber Soros, ‘James “Athenian” Stuart and Furniture Design’ in James “Athenian” Stuart 1713 – 1788: The Rediscovery of Antiquity, ed. by Susan Weber Soros, (New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 2007), pp. 412-466 (pp. 431-437)
  • Richard Hewlings, ‘The London Houses’ in James “Athenian” Stuart 1713-1988: The Rediscovery of Antiquity, ed. by Susan Weber Soros, (New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 2007), pp. 194-264 (p. 194)
  • ‘London Houses: Spencer House II’, Country Life, November 6th (1926), 698-759, pp. 758-9
  • Maurice Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, (London: V&A, 1982), p. 8
  • Christopher Wilk (ed.), Western Furniture 1350 to the Present Day, (London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 1996), p. 114
  • Susan Weber Soros, ‘James “Athenian” Stuart and Furniture Design’ in James “Athenian” Stuart 1713 – 1788: The Rediscovery of Antiquity, ed. by Susan Weber Soros, (New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 2007), pp. 412-466 (pp. 412, 431-437)
  • Richard Hewlings, ‘The London Houses’ in James “Athenian” Stuart 1713-1988: The Rediscovery of Antiquity, ed. by Susan Weber Soros, (New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 2007), pp. 194-264 (p.194, 216)
  • This seat is now once more on show at Spencer House: http://web.archive.org/web/20230213145312/https://spencerhouse.co.uk/
  • Country Life magazine, February 2024, inside front cover
Collection
Furniture and Woodwork Collection
Accession number
W.9-1977

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Record createdJanuary 25, 2001
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O53097/armchair-stuart-james-athenian/
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