THE FORDE ABBEY CHAIR , English, circa 1810
Width: 25 ¼ in; 64 cm
Depth: 27 ½ in; 70 cm
A Regency ebonised and parcel gilt armchair designed by George Smith.
An important and rare early 19th century ebonised and parcel gilt armchair designed by George Smith, having flat outwards curved back with a carved Medusa head to the centre, flanked by raised C-scrolls and anthemion decoration above a spindle gallery, supported by leopard monopodium back and front legs, joined to double caned sides applied with four gilt stars below and apron under, decorated with raised ebonised spread wings and star motif and conforming stars applied to the front rail, with a squab cushion upholstered with red and gold Regency stripe fabric.
This extraordinary chair formed part of a set of ten chairs probably commissioned for Leigh Court, Somerset, and later moved to Forde Abbey. Today the whereabouts of only three are known, with the other two in Museum collections, one at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the other in the Brighton Pavilion, East Sussex.
Provenance
Philip John Miles, Leigh Court, Somerset;
John William Miles, Forde Abbey, Dorset;
Private Collection, New York.
Literature
George Smith, A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, London 1808, pl.56
Exhibition of English Decorative Art at Landsdown House, The Collector, London 1929, plat XCV, No 513.
Margaret Jourdain, Regency Furniture 1795-1820, London 1949, p.78, fig 34
Ralph Edwards, A History of the English Chair, London 1950, pl.114/115
Percy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards,The Dictionary of English Furniture, Vol. I, London 1954, p.309, fig 269-270
Clifford Musgrave, Regency Furniture 1800-1830, London 1970, pl. 42a
Maurice Tomlin, English Furniture, London 1972, ill.158
Frances Collard, Regency Furniture, London 1985, p.100
Gervaise Jackson-Stops, The Treasure Houses of Britain, Yale 1986, p.591
Illustrated:
Country Life Magazine, July 10th 1909, pp 55-56
