High-back side chair with turned and carved frame and upholstered seat.
Identifier
FPF037
Title
High-back side chair with turned and carved frame and upholstered seat.
Date
1835-1845
Description
A high-back side chair with twist-turned frame, richly carved back splat, crest and front stretcher, and upholstered seat, in the style of Daniel Marot.
Full Description
This chair features twist-turned legs, stretchers and back posts, often seen on English caned chairs between 1670 and 1690. The back splat and crest rail are richly carved and pierced with scrolls, foliage and paterae, and the crest is surmounted by carved plumes, echoed in the carving on the front stretcher. The chair is made of chestnut with a walnut splat, which would be an unlikely combination on a late 17th or early 18th century chair and is a strong indication that this is a revival made in the first half of the 19th century. The velvet seat cover is 20th century.
This form of chair is usually described as in the style of Daniel Marot, the French architect and designer for William III, active in the late 17th and early 18th century. Marot’s designs were typified by elaborate carving and richly ornamented upholstery for Dutch and English Royal and aristocratic households. This ‘Anglo-Dutch’ style was fashionable again in the early 19th century, when there was a strong popular taste for revival styles, from Gothic and Renaissance to Elizabethan, Jacobean and Queen Anne, in what is now described as the Romantic movement (Bowett, 2002).
Although many examples of this type of chair survive in museums and historic houses, it is not always easy to identify which are of the earlier period and which are revivals, although in this case there is little doubt. Frederick Parker paid £12.10s for it in 1918, suggesting he believed it to be early 18th century.
This form of chair is usually described as in the style of Daniel Marot, the French architect and designer for William III, active in the late 17th and early 18th century. Marot’s designs were typified by elaborate carving and richly ornamented upholstery for Dutch and English Royal and aristocratic households. This ‘Anglo-Dutch’ style was fashionable again in the early 19th century, when there was a strong popular taste for revival styles, from Gothic and Renaissance to Elizabethan, Jacobean and Queen Anne, in what is now described as the Romantic movement (Bowett, 2002).
Although many examples of this type of chair survive in museums and historic houses, it is not always easy to identify which are of the earlier period and which are revivals, although in this case there is little doubt. Frederick Parker paid £12.10s for it in 1918, suggesting he believed it to be early 18th century.
Condition
Upholstery re-covered in the 20th century.
Materials
Chestnut.
Walnut.
Upholstery.
Walnut.
Upholstery.
Physical Dimensions
H. 124
W. 51
D. 56
W. 51
D. 56
Marks
There is an illegible inscription on the bottom of the back splat.
Parker Numbers
4402
Provenance
Purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons from Springbett, July 24th 1918 for £12.10.00.
Notes
Adam Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714, from Charles II to Queen Anne, Antiques Collectors Club, 2002, p.272-3.
