Settee in carved and gilded limewood, featuring a curved back and carved winged lions on each side, upholstered with modern green silk damask.

The six-legged settee features striking carved winged lions on either side, forming the legs and arm supports, with the tail curving up the back. The settee is slightly curved to fit perfectly in the curved aspe of the room. Guilloche ornament along the back and heavily fluted decoration to the seat rails add to the neoclassical style.

Purchased with the assistance of the Brigadier Clark Fund through Art Fund

In his design of the first floor rooms of Spencer House, James Stuart took responsibility for every detail from fixtures to furniture. The winged lion settees formed an integral part of the design of the Painted Room, arguably the most important interior at Spencer House and among the earliest fully-developed neoclassical interiors in Europe. The lion forms at the side of the settees correspond to classical originals that Stuart must have seen on his visit to Rome, such as the Arundel marble throne featuring similar carved lion flanks, now in the Ashmolean Museum. The two larger settees (W.1 and 2-1977) were designed to fit either side of the window facing the fireplace, while the smaller settees (W.3 and 4-1977) had curved backs to fit the curve of the aspe and sat underneath mirrors between the windows. This arrangement ensured that visitors entering the room were presented with the impressive lion flanks of all four settees. In the 1772 publication Tour Through the Southern Counties, Arthur Young describes the Painted Room, noting that ‘the frames of the tables, sofas, stand etc. are all carved and gilt in the same taste as the other ornaments of the room, rich but elegant’ (p. 114).

Purchased in 1977 from Earl Spencer [1976/2628]. On long-term loan to Spencer House since 1993.

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). This firm may well have made the frames for the settees, but the lions – naturalistic in style and featuring impressive detail – appear to be the work of a carver rather than a cabinet-maker, and these elements have been attributed to Thomas Vardy, who worked at Spencer House for his brother John Vardy as well as for Stuart (Weber Soros, p. 436). The original upholstery was green damask with brass tacks. In 1772 the firm of Gordon & Taitt provided loose, crimson covers for the set.

This settee is part of a set of seat furniture made for the Painted Room at Spencer House, London. It is specially designed to fit against a curved wall. The design is exceptionally bold, with winged lions forming the arms of the settees. 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 supported on mythical beasts.

These settees are now once more on show at Spencer House, see references.

W.3-1977