{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O172546"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O172546/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011EY9776/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011EY9776/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2011EY9776","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011FB0765","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011FD3299","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KA4242","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB3715","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KC3258","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O172546/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O172546","accessionNumber":"W.176-1923","objectType":"Armchair","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Frank Green, who gave this chair to the Museum, was a celebrated collector of English furniture in the early years of the twentieth century.  His house, Treasurer's House, in York, which he bought in 1897, is now in the care of the National Trust and much of his collection is shown there. Frank Green's family were successful industrialists and moved in fashionable circles that revolved round the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII. Frank Green amassed a celebrated collection of English decorative arts and although we now think that this chair is Dutch, he almost certainly bought it as English.  He had a particular interest in textiles and the embroidered panels would have appealed to him. We always hope to know more about objects that come to us but nothing is recorded about this chair. ","physicalDescription":"A high-backed walnut armchair with carved foliate decoration, with a drop-in seat and back panel (now fixed) covered with cross-stitch embroidery. \n\n<u>Design</u>\nThe armchair has cabriole front legs, each with a three-clawed foot clasping a globe (the form known as ball-and-claw). The back legs are plain, concave and tapering. The deep seat rail with a rounded, inset top edge, is carved along the shaped lower front edge with a central shell-like motif and arching scrolls of foliate that run down onto the knees of the legs. On the side rails a somewhat similar design is carved in a simplified fashion. \nThe back is tall, the sides completely straight, and plain below the arms. The crest rails dips in the centre with a plain head-rest, below which is carved a fictive hanging of loosely folded cloth which appears to be draped behind the rounded top corners and emerges on the front face as long pendants of leaves hanging down the frame of the back to the arms. \nThe arms are raised on scrolling, leaf-carved supports, set on the side rail behind the front legs but very strictly not reaching beyond the side rails (such that the bases are plain, without carving). The arms, which are rectangular in section where they join the back uprights, become more rounded as they move forwards and run into foliage-carved scrolls. Where they emerge from the back they are attached to the side of the back upright but are set flush with them. The scrolling hand-rests of the arms rest not only on the main supports but on sub-scrolls of foliage tht break away from the front of the main support. \nThe embroidered panels for the seat and the back meet along the back of the seat with no intervening rail. The back is lined with red watered wool (moreen) which runs under the seat rail where it is attached with tacks. The visible edges of the back panel are finished with a pinkish red gimp showing a design of eight-pointed stars.  This probably dates from the early 20th century. \n\n<u>Construction</u>\nCarved walnut legs with ball and claw foot, tenoned up into seat rails and pieced out at sides near top; front and back seat rails tenoned into side rails, arm uprights tenoned down into side rails; the side rails of softwood (possibly pine), the front and back rails possibly also but faced with thick sections of walnut; the arm rests tenoned into the back stiles with the arm uprights tenoned up into the rests. The corner of the seat are reinforced underneath with triangular blocks attached with handmade nails. The use of the walnut facings impedes the removal of the embroidered panels. The feet are fitted with shallow metal domes, known as 'domes of silence', a 20th-century addition.\n\n<u>Embroidery</u>\nCanvas work (cross-stitch) seat and back each with a cartouche containing figures in landscapes, the cartouches surrounded by foliate decoration; the seat back set into the chair frame from behind; the seat webbing apparently English and of an 18th-century type: 2 inch wide line with 3 blue stripes, with 3 webs set laterally and 3 front-to-back. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"x40240"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"walnut","id":"AAT12476"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"},{"text":"joining","id":"AAT137062"},{"text":"needlework","id":"AAT53652"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Carved and joined walnut with needlework upholstery","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2011EY9776","2011FB0765","2011FD3299","2017KA4242","2017KB3715","2017KC3258"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES342259"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Armchair","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Netherlands","id":"x29020"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably"},{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"Possibly"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1720-1750","earliest":"1715-01-01","latest":"1750-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Frank Green","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"37.5","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"26.5","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"23.25","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from departmental catalogue","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"88 [possibly 38]","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Inside the front rail on a circular label printed with a framing line and this number"},{"content":"38","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Inside PR side rail, on a white ceramic disc with the letter printed in black."}],"objectHistory":"Given by the collector Frank Green, of Treasurers' House, York, with other pieces W.177 to 179-1923).  Nominal File: Green, Frank W., MA/1/G1639/2, RF 23/5027, described as 'A walnut arm-chair, carved with acanthus etc: and claw-and-ball feet: the seat and back covered with needlework having quatrefoil panels containing figures with floral designs outside. Early 18th century.'  The list made in 1923 does not specify a country of origin. Frank Green almost certainly would have thought that it was British.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"An armchair with open arms and upholstered back and seat, the frame of carved walnut, with cabriole front legs, the panels of the back and seat covered in woollen tent stitch embroidery with the figure of a shepherd and shepherdess within a quatrefoil panel on the back. \r\n","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["W.176-1923"],"accessionNumberNum":"176","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":1923,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-01-08","recordCreationDate":"2008-11-14","availableToBook":true}}