Settee, British, ca. 1740, Henry Hill

Settee of solid and veneered walnut, with separate seat panels covered in watered woollen fabric. The settee is raised on six cabriole legs, the arms on scrolling supports with the ends carved as eagle's heads, the back of serpentine outline.

Evidence of space nailing on back face of top rail, just below top curvature, and back face of back seat rail, at top (pin holes in centre of circle - impressions). There is a lot of mess on the back stiles - so probably an outside back cover was once fixed here with space nails.

Purchased from David L. Isaacs, 44 & 46 New Oxford Street as part of a larger set of two settees and eight chairs ( Registered file 1890/84500, in Nominal File MA/1/I306). The set was described as 'Worn, leg of 1 settee loose, covers all more or less damaged). Subsequently 2 chairs were sent to the museum in Dublin, one settee and two chairs to the museum in Edinburgh (both those, at the time, like the South Kensington Museum (predecessor of the V&A) directly under the control of the Department of Science and Art; it was not uncommon for sets to be split in this way, or pieces to be otherwise shared, including the cutting up of textiles or leather). The settee and two chairs that were retained by the South Kensington Museum were given the numbers 676-1890 to 680-1890.

A note on the Registered File, dated 25 April 1911 and signed by H.C. Smith, records:'that Mr Moss Harris, of the firm of D.L. Isaacs, informed me that he purchased this settee and four chairs by auction at Pewsey House, Berkshire.'

This settee (together with the chairs 676 to 679-1890) is of nearly identical model to a set of six chairs and two settees that were sold from Burderop Park, Wroughton, Wiltshire, by direction of the beneficiary of the late Miss J. M. Calley, Humbert, Flint, Rawlence & Squarey, 20–22 May 1974, lot 882. The Calley family were major patrons of Henry Hill, at least in the 1770s, commissioning furniture for Burderop Park and Overtown House, also in Wiltshire. Although no Calley accounts have been found (so far) from before 1769, two points favour the attribution of these chairs to Hill: (a) the use of chestnut (or ash?) in their construction, which is suggestive of non-metropolitan practice; (b) the somewhat Dutch aspect of their carving, in view of the strong (though circumstantial) evidence that Hill employed immigrant craftsmen in his workshop (at least in the latter part of his career, from c. 1770).

This was originally part of a set comprising at least six chairs and possibly another settee (of which four chairs are also now in the V&A). The set was probably used in a drawing room or parlour. The frame is veneered with a fine burr walnut on the back and the seat rails, and has shallow carving applied over the veneer. These pieces may have been made in the workshop of Henry Hill, who ran a very diverse business in Marlborough, Wiltshire, encompassing furniture making, coach making, house agency and auctioneering, among other activities. A nearly identical suite was formerly at Burderop House in Wiltshire, where Hill is known to have worked. Hill appears to have employed immigrant craftsmen in his workshop, which might account for the rather Dutch-looking features, particularly the carving.

676:1 to 3-1890