Armchair of mahogany inlaid with sycamore, rosewood and walnut, upholstered seat and back; designed by Owen Jones and made by Jackson & Graham for Eynsham Hall, British ca. 1873

The armchair has a rectangular upholstered pad on the inner and outer face of the back, and a larger upholstered seat, these upholstered areas being covered with woven horsehair and edged with braid. The frame of the back is curved and the top rail extends into square section arms, the supports of which are formed as an S-curve down to square blocks at seat level. The tapering, square section, front legs, with brass castors, are joined to these blocks. The curved, square section, back legs extend up beyond the seat rail to form the lower supports for the frame of the back. The seat rails are square in section and curved. The edges of the back frame, arms, legs and seat rails are decorated with banding.

Given by the Ministry of Works

This armchair was designed by Owen Jones and supplied by Jackson & Graham for James Mason of Eynsham Hall. It was part of a large suite of furniture designed for the drawing room, music room and card room, three interconnecting rooms which were decorated and furnished with the same colour scheme and furniture. The armchair is recorded beside the drawing room fireplace in Jones's coloured elevation of these rooms (Drawing No. 5, Eynsham Hall, Special Collections, Reading University Library, illustrated in Owen Jones Design, Ornament, Architecture, and Theory in an Age in Transition, by Carol A. Hrvol Flores, New York 2006, pl. 4.26).

James Mason, a mining engineer, and his brother-in-law, Francis Tress Barry, a merchant in Bilbao, established a company, Mason and Barry, which managed the San Domingo copper mines in Portugal from 1859. The success of this investment enabled Mason to buy the Eynsham Park estate in 1866. He commissioned extensive building plans and designs for interiors and furniture from Owen Jones and the work was finished shortly before Jones's death in 1874. After Mason's death in 1903, his son James Francis Mason demolished the house and replaced it with a new building, designed by the architect, Ernest George, which was completed in 1908. Jones's silks were apparently rehung in the new library and dining room.

Eynsham Hall was used by the Home Office as a police training college from 1946-1981. The armchair was one of four pieces of furniture from Eynsham Hall given to the Museum in 1954.

James Mason, the original owner of this chair, became wealthy through investments in copper mining in Portugal. He commissioned designs for interiors and furniture for his home, Eynsham Hall, Oxfordshire, from the architect and designer, Owen Jones, and the work was carried out from 1872 to 1874, by the London firm of Jackson & Graham. The chair is part of a suite of furniture in the Museum that was designed by Jones for Eynsham Hall. Jones, an enthusiast for historic styles, based his design for the shape of the back and seat, and the tapering front legs and curved back legs, on furniture of the 1790s. The use of dark and light, foreign and native timbers reflects the interest in unconventional combinations of materials typical of furniture produced by specialist firms such as Jackson & Graham.

CIRC.34-1954