{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O55006"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O55006/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2012FP3713/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2012FP3713/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2012FP3713","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FP3711","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020MT4631","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FP3712","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FP3714","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JU3071","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O55006/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O55006","accessionNumber":"W.67-1940","objectType":"Chair","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This is the only Chippendale design for a chair which appears twice in the 3rd edition of the Director, published in 1762 (plate XIII right, design dated 1761, and repeated in plate XIV right, design dated 1753). It first appeared as plate XII right, in the 1st edition, 1754. It was the most frequently copied Chippendale design. When chairs were made following Director patterns, as in this example, it is only the back that is copied from the published plate. The seat and legs tend to be treated much more conventionally.\n\nThe symmetrical carving on the back splat suggests that the chair was made from Chippendale's published design, although the execution of the back splat is more complicated than that shown in the design. This same chair design was shown in Thomas Malton's Treatise on Perspective, 1775. This may have helped sustain the popularity of this design.\n\nChippendale's notes to the plate recommend that the design should be carefully drawn to scale before carving. He indicates that the fabric used to cover such chairs usually matches the window curtains. The height of the chair back should never be more than 22 inches (56 centimetres) above that of the seat. The mahogany would have been imported from the West Indies.\r\n\nMany versions were made by furniture makers throughout Britain and overseas, in a wide range of qualities. Without evidence from bills and inventories it is impossible to date such chairs closely. We know that workshops were producing chairs of this pattern more than 30 years after the 'Director' was published. \n\n","physicalDescription":"The seat rails and outer stretchers are tenoned to the stiles, and the middle stretcher to the side stretchers, while the back stiles are tenoned to the top rail. The side rails are pegged at the back stiles; whether they are pegged at the front legs cannot be seen, because there are new ogee blocks screwed in at the front corners. None of the other joints is pegged. The splat is tenoned to the top rail by a back-level bare-faced tenon, and to the back seat rail  presumably by a front-level bare-faced tenon. The shoe is rebated at the back to accommodate the splat and is nailed to the top of the back seat rail.\r\nThe front and side seat rails have been replaced, in birch(?), probably in 1876 when the chairs were restored by Hancock of Stratford-on-Avon (and when the inscription was found under the shoe of one chair in this set -- seemingly W.62-1940). So the pegs in the back stiles (for the side rails) cannot be original (but the original rails were probably pegged here too).","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Thomas Chippendale Senior","id":"A8241"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"AAT25190"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Mahogany","id":"AAT12221"}],"techniques":[{"text":"Carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"}],"styles":[{"text":"Rococo","id":"AAT21155"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2012FP3713","2012FP3711","2020MT4631","2012FP3712","2012FP3714","2017JU3071"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"133","id":"THES49881"},"free":"","case":"BY8","shelf":"EXP","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Chair","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1755-1770","earliest":"1750-01-01","latest":"1770-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Bequeathed by Miss Amy E. Tomes","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"94.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"1940","earliest":"1940-01-01","latest":"1940-12-31"},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"59","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"1940","earliest":"1940-01-01","latest":"1940-12-31"},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"56.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"1940","earliest":"1940-01-01","latest":"1940-12-31"},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"The six chairs W.62--67-1940 were purchased by Robert Tomes in Shipston-on-Stour, and restored for him in 1876 by a cabinet-maker of Stratford-on-Avon named Hancock. They were bequeathed to the Museum by Robert Tomes's great-niece, Miss Amy E. Tomes in 1940, who also gave a set of documents and drawings relating to the bequest (W.85-1940).","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"English chair, c.1755-70, carved mahogany, after a design by Thomas Chippendale. Modern seat upholstery. One of a set of six, W.62 to 67-1940.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Lucy Wood: The Upholstered Furniture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery. 2 Volumes (Liverpool 2008), vol. I, p.37-8 (and note 251)"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Charles H. Hayward, <i>Antique or Fake? The Making of Old Furniture. </i> London: Evans Brothers, 1970, illustrated on p. 137."}],"production":"Closely based on a design by Thomas Chippendale (plate  XII, right, in the 1st and 2nd editions of the \"Director\", 1754 &amp; 1755, and plate XIII, right, repeated in plate XIV, right, in the 3rd edition of the \"Director\" (1762); the original plate is dated 1753). But the carving is rather flat and lifeless, suggesting that the chair is probably provincial. It differs from the design in certain respects: the C-scrolls at the top of the splat disappear into the top rail rather than ending in a round scroll; and instead the top rail is peaked above the points where the C-scrolls join it. And the forked section of the splat is solid, not pierced, below the scrolling foliage (about a third of the way down). Nevertheless, the faithfulness of the copy is another indication that the chair is likely to be provincial; generally, London makers would not have been so reliant on printed designs.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"CHAIR\r\nENGLISH; about 1755\r\nMahogany\r\n\r\nThe back is inspired by a design in Thomas Chippendale's Director, 1753, plate XII.  The 'shoe' or 'pedestal' of the back [of another in the set] is inscribed in pencil, '6 pedistals for Chipendels Backs'.","date":{"text":"pre October 2000","earliest":null,"latest":"2000-09-30"}},{"text":"Chair\r\n1765–70\r\nMade by an unknown cabinet-maker, after a design by Thomas Chippendale (1718–79)\r\n\r\n\r\nBritain\r\nFrame: carved mahogany\r\nUpholstery (replacement): drop-in seat with horsehair stuffing and woven horsehair top cover\r\nNails: brass\r\n\r\nBequeathed by Miss Amy E. Tomes\r\nMuseum no. W.67-1940\r\n\r\nThe back of this chair is based on the most copied chair design in Chippendale’s Director. Many versions were made throughout Britain and overseas. Without documentation or a secure provenance we cannot know where chairs of this pattern were made. Though well executed the carving on this example lacks the crispness associated with Chippendale’s workshop.","date":{"text":"01/12/2012","earliest":"2012-12-01","latest":"2012-12-01"}}],"partNumbers":["W.67-1940"],"accessionNumberNum":"67","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":1940,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LN8008","2019LV1969","2019LW9131"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-23","recordCreationDate":"2001-02-15","availableToBook":false}}