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Description: | Although this intriguing chair appears at first sight to be all of a piece, as Frederick Parker would have thought on buying it, closer inspection reveals it is an early twentieth century olde worlde' concoction of old parts assembled to fool a potential purchaser. The fact that its tapered back is not a shape recognisable in the development of British furniture, offers an interesting reflection on the state of knowledge at the time of its assembly. It is therefore a fascinating example of the importance of retaining chairs in the context of the Collection that may not be intrinsically pure. Detective work can reveal a good deal. The upholstery of the back is too flat. The leather covering is probably of nineteenth century date finished with brass nails, while the seat webbing and hessian beneath seem of a similar date, all reused from elsewhere. The webbing on the back does not match and may be partially eighteenth century. The right arm, of shepherd's crook' form, shows tack marks from having been upholstered at some stage. The outside of the back has not been covered over as it would have been in the eighteenth century, no doubt because the supply of old leather ran out. This usefully allows inspection to reveal a frame of fine Baltic oak that would not have been used in such a concealed position, where one would expect to find cheaper beech. There also seem to be signs here of the regular strokes of a band-saw which would not been used before the mid-nineteenth century. The walnut seat rails and square chamfered legs joined by stretchers would have started life in the mid-eighteenth century with a back and arms of completely different character, and probably simpler in form. The seat height has been returned to what it probably would have been originally. Additions And Alterations: Left arm replaced and all legs tipped | Source: | Vads | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=9123... | Go to resource |
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