Painted beech and cane rout chair with upholstered seat.
Identifier
FPF208
Title
Painted beech and cane rout chair with upholstered seat.
Date
1780-1800
Description
Painted beech rout chair with caned back and upholstered seat.
Full Description
This painted beech chair has a caned cartouche-shaped back with a moulded frame, which is continuous with the back legs. The seat rail is serpentine at the front and curved at the sides and back. The seat upholstery is now modern, but it would originally have been upholstered to the line of a moulded lip in the seat rail; it was later re-upholstered and nailed along the bottom edge. An earlier cover, in the 1980s, was brown leather. The chair is raised on tapering turned legs, straight at the front, and raked at the back. There are traces of original decoration, probably green and white paint, beneath later green and yellow paint. The caning in the back is original.
Rout chairs were intended for use at large assemblies, such as dances and banquets, and were described in Sheraton’s Cabinet Dictionary (1803) as ‘Small painted chairs with rush bottoms, lent out by cabinet makers for hire, as a supply of seats at general entertainments, or feasts; hence their name rout chair’. They might also be found in a domestic setting where they were used or kept in different rooms during the week and brought together for parties; a hand-coloured etching by Charles Williams, ‘Regency fete or John Bull in the Conservatory’ (1811) shows rout chairs around a banqueting table (Boram, 2015).
A set of ten rout chairs, c. 1775, attributed to Thomas Chippendale (1718-79) was formerly at Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire (illustrated in Gilbert, 1978). Rout chairs with rush seats made by Gillows from the 1780s onwards were either stained or painted, stained chairs being less expensive (Boram). Evidently, rout chairs could be hired out: Ayliffe & Webb, Chair Makers and Turners, active in c. 1765 at 49 Wardour Street, Soho, advertised: ‘Chairs lent for Routs’ (cited in Gloag, 1991).
This chair may have been inspired by French models; it relates to a set of six French caned chaises en cabriolet by Georges Jacob illustrated in Kjellberg, 2002.
Rout chairs were intended for use at large assemblies, such as dances and banquets, and were described in Sheraton’s Cabinet Dictionary (1803) as ‘Small painted chairs with rush bottoms, lent out by cabinet makers for hire, as a supply of seats at general entertainments, or feasts; hence their name rout chair’. They might also be found in a domestic setting where they were used or kept in different rooms during the week and brought together for parties; a hand-coloured etching by Charles Williams, ‘Regency fete or John Bull in the Conservatory’ (1811) shows rout chairs around a banqueting table (Boram, 2015).
A set of ten rout chairs, c. 1775, attributed to Thomas Chippendale (1718-79) was formerly at Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire (illustrated in Gilbert, 1978). Rout chairs with rush seats made by Gillows from the 1780s onwards were either stained or painted, stained chairs being less expensive (Boram). Evidently, rout chairs could be hired out: Ayliffe & Webb, Chair Makers and Turners, active in c. 1765 at 49 Wardour Street, Soho, advertised: ‘Chairs lent for Routs’ (cited in Gloag, 1991).
This chair may have been inspired by French models; it relates to a set of six French caned chaises en cabriolet by Georges Jacob illustrated in Kjellberg, 2002.
Condition
The joints between the side rails and back legs are pegged, which appears to be a strengthening repair and not a feature when the chair was made.
The seat upholstery is modern
The seat upholstery is modern
Materials
Beech.
Cane.
Upholstery.
Cane.
Upholstery.
Physical Dimensions
H. 94
W. 56
D. 61
W. 56
D. 61
Parker Numbers
OM 3884. See Frederick Parker Archive, Box 55, FPA050, Page 89.
Provenance
Purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons from Lenygon, December 1917, for £1.17.6
Notes
T. Sheraton, The Cabinet Dictionary, 1803, vol. II, p. 299.
J. Boram, ‘The Domestic Context for Gillows’ Rush- and Cane-Seated Chairs’, Regional Furniture, vol. XXIX, 2015, pp. 50-52, and see Fig 3.
J. Gloag, A Complete Dictionary of Furniture, revised and expanded by C. Edwards, Woodstock, 1991, p. 572.
C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, p. 103, fig. 175.
A set of nineteen painted and caned chairs, 1760-80, at Osterley House, Middlesex (originally twenty-four) is by their number and caning possibly a set of rout chairs, see:
Chair 771745.1 | National Trust collections
P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Francais de XVIIIe Siecle, Paris, 2002, p. 421.
J. Boram, ‘The Domestic Context for Gillows’ Rush- and Cane-Seated Chairs’, Regional Furniture, vol. XXIX, 2015, pp. 50-52, and see Fig 3.
J. Gloag, A Complete Dictionary of Furniture, revised and expanded by C. Edwards, Woodstock, 1991, p. 572.
C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, p. 103, fig. 175.
A set of nineteen painted and caned chairs, 1760-80, at Osterley House, Middlesex (originally twenty-four) is by their number and caning possibly a set of rout chairs, see:
Chair 771745.1 | National Trust collections
P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Francais de XVIIIe Siecle, Paris, 2002, p. 421.
