Painted beech armchair with caned seat and back and squab cushion.
Identifier
FPF217
Title
Painted beech armchair with caned seat and back and squab cushion.
Date
1775-1790
Description
Painted beech armchair with caned seat and back and squab cushion.
Full Description
This cream and green-painted armchair with caned seat and back has a square framed back with an arched and moulded crest rail with carved scrolls meeting at the centre, and back posts which terminate in finials carved as flowers. The top of the back is hung with a padded and fringed cushion held in place with cords through the cane work. The down-swept arms are channel-moulded and terminate in scrolls carved with acanthus leaves and the down-swept supports have a line of carved pearling. The tapering caned seat has a squab cushion with some of the original filling. It is above a deep channelled seat rail. The chair is raised on turned, part-fluted and foliate-carved baluster-shaped front legs with carved panels at the top with pressed brass paterae, while the square-section back legs are flared.
The design of this chair is probably inspired by French models, for example the fauteuils à la Reine by Georges Jacob (1739-1814), Jean-Baptiste-Claude Sené (1748-1803) and Jean-Baptiste Bernard Demay (maître in 1784) (Kjellberg, 2002).
The novelty of using cane in chairs during the late 17th and early 18th centuries had declined in favour of fixed upholstery by the 1730s, but cane enjoyed a revival towards the end of the century, when it was increasingly used in light-weight chairs such as this, ‘sometimes simply as a support for a seat cushion or squab and sometimes as a decorative feature in a chair back, but essentially as a secondary material rather than as a primary feature’ (Dewing, 2008). In Thomas Sheraton’s The Cabinet Dictionary (1803), the entry ‘Cane’ is described as: ‘About 30 years since, it was quite gone out of fashion, partly owing to the imperfect manner in which it was executed. But on the revival of japanning [painted] furniture, it began to be brought gradually into use and to a state of improvement, so that at present it is introduced into several pieces of furniture, which it was not a few years past… The cane used for the best purposes, is of a fine light straw colour, and this, indeed, makes the most agreeable contrast to almost every colour it is joined with’ (cited in Gloag, 1991).
The design of this chair is probably inspired by French models, for example the fauteuils à la Reine by Georges Jacob (1739-1814), Jean-Baptiste-Claude Sené (1748-1803) and Jean-Baptiste Bernard Demay (maître in 1784) (Kjellberg, 2002).
The novelty of using cane in chairs during the late 17th and early 18th centuries had declined in favour of fixed upholstery by the 1730s, but cane enjoyed a revival towards the end of the century, when it was increasingly used in light-weight chairs such as this, ‘sometimes simply as a support for a seat cushion or squab and sometimes as a decorative feature in a chair back, but essentially as a secondary material rather than as a primary feature’ (Dewing, 2008). In Thomas Sheraton’s The Cabinet Dictionary (1803), the entry ‘Cane’ is described as: ‘About 30 years since, it was quite gone out of fashion, partly owing to the imperfect manner in which it was executed. But on the revival of japanning [painted] furniture, it began to be brought gradually into use and to a state of improvement, so that at present it is introduced into several pieces of furniture, which it was not a few years past… The cane used for the best purposes, is of a fine light straw colour, and this, indeed, makes the most agreeable contrast to almost every colour it is joined with’ (cited in Gloag, 1991).
Condition
The paint is worn and faded, there are remains of white or cream over black, and small traces of green or blue.
The canework on seat and back appears original.
Castors were fitted at one time, now missing.
The canework on seat and back appears original.
Castors were fitted at one time, now missing.
Materials
Beech.
Brass.
Cane.
Loose upholstery.
Brass.
Cane.
Loose upholstery.
Physical Dimensions
H. 91
W. 61
D. 66
W. 61
D. 66
Parker Numbers
1743. OM 519. See Frederick Parker Archive, Box 55, FPA050, Page 10.
1743 is probably the pattern number.
1743 is probably the pattern number.
Provenance
Purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons pre 1914, valued at £2.0.0.
Notes
P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Francais de XVIIIe Siecle, Paris, 2002, pp. 418, 820, 288.
D. Dewing, ‘Cane Chairs, their Manufacture and Use in London, 1670-1730’, Regional Furniture, vol. XXII, 2008, pp. 53-82.
D. Dewing, CANE CHAIRS, THEIR MANUFACTURE AND USE IN LONDON, 1670-1730
J. Gloag, A Complete Dictionary of Furniture, revised and expanded by C. Edwards, Woodstock, 1991, p. 178.
D. Dewing, ‘Cane Chairs, their Manufacture and Use in London, 1670-1730’, Regional Furniture, vol. XXII, 2008, pp. 53-82.
D. Dewing, CANE CHAIRS, THEIR MANUFACTURE AND USE IN LONDON, 1670-1730
J. Gloag, A Complete Dictionary of Furniture, revised and expanded by C. Edwards, Woodstock, 1991, p. 178.
