Walnut armchair with fully upholstered seat, back and arms.

FPF027

Walnut armchair with fully upholstered seat, back and arms.

1720-1730

Walnut armchair with pillar legs, fully upholstered seat, back and arms, the arms and back scrolled.

This walnut armchair has a frame with ‘pillar’ front legs, steeply raked back legs and wavy H-form stretchers with an asymmetric medial stretcher, which together indicate a date of c.1720 (Bowett, 2009). The upholstered back and arms are scrolled and the seat has a deep, loose cushion. The seat rails have shaped walnut aprons, and the front apron is decorated with turned roundels. The octagonal pillar legs have panels with burr walnut veneer, and the stretchers are veneered in cross-grained walnut, with a turned centre to the medial rail. The feet have been cut down and replaced with castors, possibly in the 19th century. The chair has been re-upholstered in the 20th century.

Originally this chair would have had a higher back, giving it more elegant proportions; for a sense of how it might have been, see Bowett, 2002, p.255, Plate 8:47. See also the Roberts armchair in the Victoria and Albert Museum collection, now on loan to Houghton Hall.

The legs have been cut down to fit castors.
The right back leg has been repaired.
The back has been reduced in height and re-shaped.
The upholstery is modern.

Walnut.
Upholstery.

H. 91
W. 79
D. 64

1388. 2122. 4988. PK529

Purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons in 1912, when valued at £8.10.0.

Adam Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture, 1715-1740, Antique Collectors’ Club, 2009, p144, Plate 4:2 shows a side chair with similar frame.
Adam Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714, From Charles II to Queen Anne, Antique Collectors’ Club, 2002, p.255, Plate 8:47.
For the Roberts armchair at the V&A, on loan to Houghton, see:
Armchair | V&A Explore The Collections