A walnut side chair with baluster splat and cabriole legs.

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Identifier

FPF056

Title

A walnut side chair with baluster splat and cabriole legs.

Date

1720-1730

Description

A walnut side chair with a baluster splat, cabriole legs and drop-in seat.

Full Description

This walnut side chair has a tall, concave back with moulded and chamfered back posts joined by an undulating, dipped crest rail, and a solid baluster splat that slots into a raised ‘shoe’ on top of the rear seat rail. It has a tapered drop-in upholstered seat. The moulded front seat-rail has a central carved-in scallop shell. The front legs are ‘broken’ cabriole with carved ‘C’ scroll brackets on the knees; the lower front legs have unusual carved recessed panels, terminating in pad feet which have been cut short. The flared and chamfered back legs have been shortened and fitted with brass castors. The legs are joined by a flat, shaped ‘H’ stretcher, centred by double-scroll carving in the Dutch auricular manner. The side stretchers echo the ‘broken’ cabriole form of the front legs. The upholstery is 20th century.

This form of chair is derived from Chinese chairs with the crest rail shaped like a milkmaid’s yoke, turned back posts and a rectangular solid splat. In this example, some of the Chinese angularity is retained in the shape of the chair-back and the cusping on the corners of the crest rail. However, the baluster or vase-shaped splat is an English form introduced in the 1720s, when such chairs were referred to as ‘banister’ or ‘pedestal’ back chairs (Bowett, 2009).

The curved upper section of the ‘broken’ cabriole leg probably derives from Chinese prototypes, for example k’ang tables and beds of the Ming and early Qing dynasties and seen for example in the seat-furniture and pier tables at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire (ibid., p.154).

Condition

Old surface finish remains.
The back of the splat shows evidence of an 18th century restoration, a knot filled with sawdust and glue.
Feet/legs cut down to accommodate castors added later to the back legs.
Drop-in seat frame is replaced

Materials

Walnut.
Upholstery.

Physical Dimensions

H. 104
W. 58
D. 61

Marks

Stamped ‘VI’ indicating that this chair is part of a set of at least six chairs.

Parker Numbers

Painted inside seat rail: 56/6220. Plastic label inside seat rail: OM 3757. There are two paper labels applied to the underside of the seat-rail – one reads ‘3757’, the other is illegible.

Provenance

Purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons prior to 1914 for £13.10.0

Notes

A. Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 1715-1740, Woodbridge, 2009, pp. 154-159, 161.
R.W. Symonds, ‘A Chair from China’, Country Life, 5 November 1953, pp. 1497-1499.
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