An armchair of painted satinwood, the back of shield shape, the seat caned, the front surfaces of back, seat, arms and legs painted with polychrome flowers.

An armchair of painted satinwood, the back of shield shape, the seat caned, the front surfaces of back, seat, arms and legs painted with polychrome flowers. The back, which is slightly convex, has a splat formed of curved ribs, those in the centre enclosing a vase of flowers painted in natural colours. The framework of the back and the curved uprights supporting it are decorated with peacocks' feathers, floral sparys and pendants of ivy leaf. The arms rest upon curved supports sweeping downwards towards the seat-rail which is of shaped outline at the front and supported by tapered legs supported by floral sprays and pendants of peacock feathers; the back legs curved outwards. The seat is caned and has a loose cushion covered with contemporary silk brocade woven with a floral pattern.

The caning is of traditional pattern, with double, thinner canes for the orthoganals. The holes for the caning are spaced at intervals of 3/4 of an inch. The inside of the seat rail is cut with a semi-circular groove for the seating of the caning.Two holes that show evidence of a screw thread are sited on the underside of the side rails, about one third of the way back. It is possible that these were used for screws to fix the chairs firmly within the crates when they were sent to Guernsey.

The feet have been replaced on all four legs, cut off just above the blocks or collars, as shown in the black-and-white photo of the chair taken at the time it was acquired by the Museum. It seems likely that this was the result of a wish to reduce the height of the chairs, rather than the repair of damage.

Given by Mrs Simon Green

This chair is almost identical in design to three chairs (W.1-1968 to W.3-1968) supplied by Seddon, Sons & Shackleton to D. Tupper of Hauteville House, Guernsey in 1790. For many years it was thought to form part of the large set of drawing-room furniture supplied at that time (including 18 armchairs of this design) but the differences in measurements are significant enough to suggest that it was not part of that set, although it is likely to have been made by Seddons for another client and the presence of the same stamped initials on this chair as on one from that trio also supports the idea that it comes from the Seddon workshops, identifying the particular workman who made this chair. For a detailed account of the Tupper commission, see entries for W.1 to W.3-1968 and Christopher Gilbert, 'Seddon, Sons & Shackleton', Furniture History vol. XXXIII (1997), pp. 1-29

The firm of George Seddon, which later traded as Seddon & Sons and then as Seddon, Sons & Shackleton, was one of the largest firms in London, active from 1753 to 1768 under various titles. Although few pieces made by the firm survive, there is substantial archive evidence of their work and a detailed description of their workshops in 1786, by the German traveller Sophie von la Roche was published in 1791 and was reprinted in both German and English in Furniture History, vol. XXXIII (1997), pp. 30-34, edited by Christopher Gilbert and Lucy Wood. That account describes the very extensive workshops and the large number of workmen and workwomen employed by the firm, which could supply most of what a client could want to furnish a house.

In 1887 the South Kensington Museum (predecessor of the V&A) acquired two painted armchairs of very similar form (239-1887 and 240-1887) made by the London firm of Wright and Mansfield. The proportions of those chairs are very different from those of this chair but they are certainly derived from this model and are early instances of 19th-century reproductions of English 18th-century furniture.

An armchair of identical form was sold by Bonhams, London, 24 June 2009, lot 51.
A set of 6 armchairs of very similar form, with painted decoration on a black ground was sold by Christie's, London, 26 June 1958, lot 46. Details of the feet and arms are similar, but the back is slightly different.

The motif of peacock feathers was also used by the firm of Ince and Mayhew in about 1790 for furniture for Warren Hastings for Daylesford house, illustrated in Hugh Roberts and Charles Cator, Industry and Ingenuity. The Partnership of William Ince and John Mayhew. London: Philip Wilson, 2022, pp. 279, 406, 429, 431.

This chair is of the same model as W.1 to 3-1968, and bears the same stamp, 'IP', as on W.3-1968, but its proportions differ by more than is likely to have been tolerated if they were made as part of the same set. Presumably, therefore, they are from different commissions, but made around the same time in the same workshop (probably Seddon, Sons and Shackleton).

Although this armchair is very close to another three armchairs in the collection (W.1-1968 to W.3-1968), made by the London firm of Seddon, Sons & Shackleton in 1790, slight differences in dimensions suggest that it was made for another set, but by the same workshops. The individual craftsman's stamp 'I P'. on the inside of the back seat rail, is identical to the stamp on one of that trio of chairs. It is likely that such a decorative design, highly fashionable in 1790, would have been produced for different clients, either in identical form or with slight variations. A settee with a closely similar back, is recorded with turned rather than square legs. One hundred years later the design was once more admired and the firm of Wright and Mansfield produced reproductions of the design, of which the South Kensington Museum (predecessor of the V&A) bought two (Museum nos, 239-1887 and 240-1887), as examples of fine contemporary design and workmanship.

W.59-1936