Chair
ca. 1755-1770 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This is the only Chippendale design for a chair which appears twice in the 3rd edition of the Director, published in 1762 (plate XIII right, design dated 1761, and repeated in plate XIV right, design dated 1753). It first appeared as plate XII right, in the 1st edition, 1754. It was the most frequently copied Chippendale design. When chairs were made following Director patterns, as in this example, it is only the back that is copied from the published plate. The seat and legs tend to be treated much more conventionally.
The symmetrical carving on the back splat suggests that the chair was made from Chippendale's published design, although the execution of the back splat is more complicated than that shown in the design. This same chair design was shown in Thomas Malton's Treatise on Perspective, 1775. This may have helped sustain the popularity of this design.
Chippendale's notes to the plate recommend that the design should be carefully drawn to scale before carving. He indicates that the fabric used to cover such chairs usually matches the window curtains. The height of the chair back should never be more than 22 inches (56 centimetres) above that of the seat. The mahogany would have been imported from the West Indies.
Many versions were made by furniture makers throughout Britain and overseas, in a wide range of qualities. Without evidence from bills and inventories it is impossible to date such chairs closely. We know that workshops were producing chairs of this pattern more than 30 years after the 'Director' was published.
The symmetrical carving on the back splat suggests that the chair was made from Chippendale's published design, although the execution of the back splat is more complicated than that shown in the design. This same chair design was shown in Thomas Malton's Treatise on Perspective, 1775. This may have helped sustain the popularity of this design.
Chippendale's notes to the plate recommend that the design should be carefully drawn to scale before carving. He indicates that the fabric used to cover such chairs usually matches the window curtains. The height of the chair back should never be more than 22 inches (56 centimetres) above that of the seat. The mahogany would have been imported from the West Indies.
Many versions were made by furniture makers throughout Britain and overseas, in a wide range of qualities. Without evidence from bills and inventories it is impossible to date such chairs closely. We know that workshops were producing chairs of this pattern more than 30 years after the 'Director' was published.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | |
| Brief description | English chair, c.1755-70, carved mahogany, after a design by Thomas Chippendale. Modern seat upholstery. One of a set of six, W.62 to 67-1940. |
| Physical description | The seat rails and outer stretchers are tenoned to the stiles, and the middle stretcher to the side stretchers, while the back stiles are tenoned to the top rail. The side rails are pegged at the back stiles; whether they are pegged at the front legs cannot be seen, because there are new ogee blocks screwed in at the front corners. None of the other joints is pegged. The splat is tenoned to the top rail by a back-level bare-faced tenon, and to the back seat rail presumably by a front-level bare-faced tenon. The shoe is rebated at the back to accommodate the splat and is nailed to the top of the back seat rail. The front and side seat rails have been replaced, in birch(?), probably in 1876 when the chairs were restored by Hancock of Stratford-on-Avon (and when the inscription was found under the shoe of one chair in this set -- seemingly W.62-1940). So the pegs in the back stiles (for the side rails) cannot be original (but the original rails were probably pegged here too). |
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| Style | |
| Gallery label |
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| Credit line | Bequeathed by Miss Amy E. Tomes |
| Object history | The six chairs W.62--67-1940 were purchased by Robert Tomes in Shipston-on-Stour, and restored for him in 1876 by a cabinet-maker of Stratford-on-Avon named Hancock. They were bequeathed to the Museum by Robert Tomes's great-niece, Miss Amy E. Tomes in 1940, who also gave a set of documents and drawings relating to the bequest (W.85-1940). |
| Production | Closely based on a design by Thomas Chippendale (plate XII, right, in the 1st and 2nd editions of the "Director", 1754 & 1755, and plate XIII, right, repeated in plate XIV, right, in the 3rd edition of the "Director" (1762); the original plate is dated 1753). But the carving is rather flat and lifeless, suggesting that the chair is probably provincial. It differs from the design in certain respects: the C-scrolls at the top of the splat disappear into the top rail rather than ending in a round scroll; and instead the top rail is peaked above the points where the C-scrolls join it. And the forked section of the splat is solid, not pierced, below the scrolling foliage (about a third of the way down). Nevertheless, the faithfulness of the copy is another indication that the chair is likely to be provincial; generally, London makers would not have been so reliant on printed designs. |
| Summary | This is the only Chippendale design for a chair which appears twice in the 3rd edition of the Director, published in 1762 (plate XIII right, design dated 1761, and repeated in plate XIV right, design dated 1753). It first appeared as plate XII right, in the 1st edition, 1754. It was the most frequently copied Chippendale design. When chairs were made following Director patterns, as in this example, it is only the back that is copied from the published plate. The seat and legs tend to be treated much more conventionally. The symmetrical carving on the back splat suggests that the chair was made from Chippendale's published design, although the execution of the back splat is more complicated than that shown in the design. This same chair design was shown in Thomas Malton's Treatise on Perspective, 1775. This may have helped sustain the popularity of this design. Chippendale's notes to the plate recommend that the design should be carefully drawn to scale before carving. He indicates that the fabric used to cover such chairs usually matches the window curtains. The height of the chair back should never be more than 22 inches (56 centimetres) above that of the seat. The mahogany would have been imported from the West Indies. Many versions were made by furniture makers throughout Britain and overseas, in a wide range of qualities. Without evidence from bills and inventories it is impossible to date such chairs closely. We know that workshops were producing chairs of this pattern more than 30 years after the 'Director' was published. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | W.67-1940 |
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| Record created | February 15, 2001 |
| Record URL |
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