{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1386973"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1386973/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PK5179/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PK5179/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PK5179","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London / courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PK5178","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London / courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JV1234","copyright":"© Frederick Warne & Co.","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1386973","accessionNumber":"BP.1161","objectType":"drawing","titles":[{"title":"Sketch of a chair and firescreen, Melford Hall","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) is one of the world's best-loved children's authors and illustrators. She wrote the majority of the twenty-three Original Peter Rabbit Books between 1901 and 1913. The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Frederick Warne, 1902) is her most famous and best-loved tale.\r\n\r\nFrom childhood, Beatrix Potter delighted in studying and sketching the old furniture and oak-paneled rooms of the houses she visited. The stately rooms of Melford Hall in Suffolk, the home of her cousin, Stephanie Hyde-Parker, inspired some of her most exquisite furniture studies. This detailed sketch shows a bobbin-turned armchair with projecting wings of about 1660-70 and an Adam-style pole fire screen of about 1790. \r\n\r\nAfter purchasing her first Lake District property, Hill Top, in 1905, Potter took a keen interest in furnishing the house with family furniture from London and oak furniture purchased at local sales. The interior of the house inspired some of her book illustrations, particularly those for The Tale of Samuel Whiskers (Frederick Warne, 1908). Potter’s interest in furniture continued long after her retirement from writing and illustrating children’s books, when she dedicated much time to buying and restoring Lakeland farmhouses and furniture, leaving fourteen farms and twenty houses to the National Trust upon her death in 1943.\r\n","physicalDescription":"Study of a bobbin-turned armchair with projecting wings and part of a fireplace, with an Adam-style pole firescreen.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Beatrix Potter","id":"A18000"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"},{"text":"pencil","id":"x30347"},{"text":"paper (fiber product)","id":"AAT14109"}],"techniques":[{"text":"drawing","id":"x32498"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Pen and ink with pencil on paper","categories":[{"text":"Drawings","id":"THES48966"},{"text":"Interiors","id":"THES48933"},{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"},{"text":"Woodwork","id":"THES48877"},{"text":"Woman Artist","id":"THES387590"},{"text":"Tourism & Travel","id":"THES250702"}],"styles":[{"text":"British","id":"AAT111159"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2025PK5179","2025PK5178","2017JV1234"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"005","id":"THES317967"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"drawing","id":"x32498"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1903","earliest":"1898-01-01","latest":"1907-12-31"},"association":{"text":"drawn","id":"x30545"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Linder Bequest [plus object number; written on labels on the same line as the object number]","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"185","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"265","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Watermark: 'Aviemore'"}],"objectHistory":"Drawn by Beatrix Potter at Melford Hall, ca. 1903. Acquired by the V&A from Leslie Linder (1904-1973) in 1973 as part of the Linder Bequest, a collection of ca. 2150 watercolours, drawings, literary manuscripts, correspondence, books, photographs, and other memorabilia associated with Beatrix Potter and her family.   ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Pen and ink over pencil sketch of a chair and firescreen at Melford Hall, by Beatrix Potter, ca. 1903; Linder Bequest cat. no. LB.488.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Hobbs, Anne Stevenson, and Joyce Irene Whalley, eds. <u>Beatrix Potter: the V & A collection : the Leslie Linder bequest of Beatrix Potter material : watercolours, drawings, manuscripts, books, photographs and memorabilia.</u> London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1985.","id":"AUTH315806"},"details":"p.52; no.488","free":"Hobbs, Anne Stevenson, and Joyce Irene Whalley, eds. Beatrix Potter: the V & A collection: the Leslie Linder bequest of Beatrix Potter material: watercolours, drawings, manuscripts, books, photographs and memorabilia. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1985. p.52; no.488"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Melford Hall","id":"x39286"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"furniture","id":"AAT37680"},{"text":"chairs","id":"AAT37772"},{"text":"fireplaces","id":"AAT52267"},{"text":"firescreens","id":"AAT37745"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["BP.1161"],"accessionNumberNum":"1161","accessionNumberPrefix":"BP","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Linder Bequest catalogue no.","id":"THES57120"},"number":"LB.488"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-03-19","recordCreationDate":"2017-03-09","availableToBook":true}}