{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O59056"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O59056/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019MK5960/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019MK5960/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2019MK5960","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2019MK5957","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2019MK5961","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2019MK5961","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2019MK5959","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FP3702","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FP3690","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FP3687","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FP3689","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FP3691","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FP3698","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FP3703","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FP4568","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FP4569","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FV4910","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O59056","accessionNumber":"LOAN:CO. OF JOINERS.1:1, 2","objectType":"Armchair","titles":[{"title":"Master's chair of the Joiners' Company","type":"popular title"}],"summaryDescription":"The abundant carving on this oversize chair is especially appropriate for its use. It was made for the Master of the Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers or Carvers, a London livery company, to use during meetings. The others present sat on long forms. The chair demonstrates the carver's skill; the carving throughout is of superb quality and inventiveness, and illustrates the variety and exuberance of the Rococo style fashionable in the 1750s.  It incorporates Gothic arches, scrolling acanthus leaves, fantasy architecure and Chinese-style blind fretwork. Fortunately, records from the Joiners' Company survive, telling us the name of the carver, Edward Newman, a cabinetmaker and chairmaker with premises in the City of London.  When he made the chair in 1754 he was a liveryman of the Joiners' Company and had himself served as Master in 1749. The custom of providing a large and impressive chair for the person governing a meeting gave rise to the term 'chairman'. ","physicalDescription":"<b>Summary description</b> \r\nA large ceremonial armchair in carved mahogany, the back elaborately carved with leafy Gothic arches, surmounted by the coat of arms of the Joiners' Company. The square legs and stretchers carved with blind tracery, and with a leather-upholstered seat. The serpentine arms, with out-turned lion-head arm-ends, have inverse cabriole supports, set back from the front of the seat.\r\n\r\n<b>Decorative Scheme</b> \r\nThe chair-back is pierced and carved with a symmetrical composition of leafy arched C-scrolls and gothic pinnacles, arising from a central pierced splat flanked by pair of columns. The side uprights are surmounted in a cruciform finial of acanthus leaves (the right finial missing).  The chair back was carved as a single scheme after construction, as the side uprights are carved as an integral part of the overall scheme, so that their apparent juncture with the back splat does not match the actual joints. The cresting incorporates the coat of arms of the Joiners' Company. The flatter background areas of the chair-back are given texture with with both punching and a chip-carved diaper pattern. \n\nThe outward-curving arms, carved in relief on the upper surface with rocaille and acanthus leaves, terminate in lion's heads with deeply undercut jaws. The arms rest on supports arising in an S-scroll from the side seat rails.  In contrast to the chair back and arms, the lower part of the chair-frame is severely rectilinear, with square-section legs joined by an H-stretcher and rectangular seat rails. The back legs and uprights are raked.   The outer faces of the legs, rails and stretchers are carved in relief with strapwork of interlaced C-scrolls, the carving being in deeper relief on the seat rails. \n\nThe formal description of the coat of arms, which were granted in 1571, is as follows: \n\n'Gules a chevron argent between in chief two compasses extended, points downwards, and in base a globe or; on a chief argent a pale azure between two roses fules, on the pale an escallop argent'.\nCrest: 'On a wreath or and azure a demi-man carnation, with a laurel garland vert about his head and waist, holding with his dexter hand a lance or at rest upon his shoulder'. \n(Explanation: Gules = red; argent = white; azure - blue; chief = upper third of the shield; chevron = the inverted V shape; wreath = twisted roll beneath the crest; escallop = scallop shell).\n\nThe crest, above the usual heraldic helmet, is a wild man or 'woodwose', a traditional figure used in heraldry, no doubt chosen as an allusion to the Joiners as woodmen.   On the chair-back the wild man's head and spear are now missing. \n\nThe Company also informally adopted supporters at the sides of the shield, which appear to have originated at the beginning of the eighteenth century.   These were described in the Company's Minute Book in 1842 as 'Two naked boys proper the dexter holding in his hand an emblematical female figure crowned with a mural coronet sable; the sinister holding in his hand a square'.\n(mural coronet = coronet composed of battlemented masonry symbolising an urban area; sable = black; dexter = right; sinister = left).\n\nOn the chair the supporters' arms, holding the female figure and set square, have broken off.\r\n\r\n<b>Structure and materials</b> \r\nThe chair frame is entirely made in mahogany. The principal elements are of mortise and tenon construction. The central splat of the chair-back is carved in one piece, tenoned into the seat rail and cresting rail. The extremities of the carved decoration, such as the boys' arms, were extended with pieces dowelled in place; a dowel-hole is visible on the left-hand boy where the arm has become detached. A dowel-hole can also be seen in the top of the figure surmounting the cresting rail which has lost its head.  The carving is extremely finely executed throughout, but especially evident in the figures of the boy supporters in the cresting.\r\n\r\nThe seat is stuffed with curled horse hair.  The leather top cover, replaced by the V&A in 2011, is close-nailed to the seat rails. The seat frame has four corner-braces underneath. \r\n\r\nThe back seat rail is worm-damaged and has been supported by an additional batten. Vertical gaps which had appeared between the sides of the back splat and the side-uprights owing to shrinkage were filled (2011) with narrow balsa-wood fillets, soft enough to allow some movement.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Newman, Edward","id":"A38709"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28674"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"mahogany","id":"AAT12221"},{"text":"leather","id":"AAT11845"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Mahogany, carved and joined, with a leather-upholstered seat.","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"}],"styles":[{"text":"Rococo","id":"AAT21155"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2019MK5960","2019MK5957","2019MK5961","2019MK5961","2019MK5959","2012FP3702","2012FP3690","2012FP3687","2012FP3689","2012FP3691","2012FP3698","2012FP3703","2012FP4568","2012FP4569","2012FV4910"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"133","id":"THES49881"},"free":"","case":"BY9","shelf":"EXP","box":""},{"current":{"text":"006","id":"THES344445"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Armchair","id":""}],[{"text":"upholstery","id":"AAT204905"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1754","earliest":"1754-01-01","latest":"1754-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Lent by the Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers","dimensions":[],"dimensionsNote":"HW: 96.2x74.6cm (from file)","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Willm Smith Master\r\nWillm Methold Upper Warden\r\nNichs Tomkins Renter Warden\r\nIN THE YEAR 1755","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Engraved on a rectangular brass plaque screwed to the back of the chair. Possibly attached at the time of construction."},{"content":"THIS CHAIR/WAS CARVED IN 1754/BY/EDWARD NEWMAN/LIVERYMAN 1720/COURT OF ASSISTANTS 1738/MASTER 1749","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Engraved on the underside of a hinged brass flap which is fixed over the brass plaque giving the names of the officers in 1755. The flap was probably added in 1868."},{"content":"THIS CHAIR/THE PROPERTY OF THE/WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF JOINERS/IS PLACED IN THE TEMPORARY CARE OF THE COMMITTEE IN RELATION TO/THE CITY OF LONDON FREEMANS ORPHAN SCHOOL/1868/JOHN HOLT ESQ MASTER OF THE JOINERS COMPANY/S.GARDINER ESQ/J.E. PONDER ESQ WARDENS.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Engraved on the outer side of a brass flap screwed to the back of the chair."}],"objectHistory":"The chair was made in 1754 as the master's chair during meetings of the Worshipful Company of Joiners in London.\n\n The minutes of the Joiners Company, held in the Guildhall Library, London, record that on 1 October 1754 a 'proper Handsome Master's Chair' for the Court Parlour of the Joiners' Company was ordered by the then Master, William Smith, and on 6 May 1755 the minutes record 'read and passed a bill of Mr Edward Newman for a large Mahogany Carved Chair for the Court Parlour 27-6-0'. The seat cover is not recorded, but may have been leather, which had the advantages of being hard-wearing and relatively stain-proof, and was a popular choice. The Dyer's Company commissioned a chair in 1734 with 'blue morocco Leather to be Naild with handsome lacquered Nails.., but later changed their minds in favour of 'Red Turkey Leather'. It was evidently thought that to add comfort a squab cushion was required. On 5 August 1760 the company 'Read and passed a bill of Mr J. Brown for a Crimson Morine Squabb for the Master's Chair'. A squab was generally shaped to fit the chair, and in this case covered in morine (moreen), a worsted wool cloth which was given a waved or stamped finish.\n\nThe names of the officers of the company in 1755 are engraved on a brass plaque on the back, which is possibly original. A second hinged brass plaque was added over the first presumably in 1868, the date on the plaque.\n\nThe Joiners' chair was made later in the same year that Thomas Chippendale published his book of furniture designs, 'The Gentleman and  Cabinet-maker's Director' .  The 'Director', published in March 1754, included designs for 'Gothick Chairs' and 'Chinese Chairs' with carved backs and square-section legs with low-relief or pierced tracery, confirming that Newman, if not influenced directly by Chippendale, designed the chair in the most up to date style.\r\n\nMost of the halls belonging to the Livery Companies were rebuilt and refurnished after the Great Fire of London of 1666. Sets of matching chairs were provided for the Court Rooms, often including larger chairs for the Master. Several other surviving Master's chairs date from the period 1700-1760, all with the coat of arms of the company on the cresting. \n\n<u>Edward Newman</u>\nEdward Newman (1692?-1758), was a cabinet maker and chair maker. 'Mr Edward Newman of St Paul's Churchyard' in the City of London, was was voted on to the Court of Livery of the Joiners Company in January 1738. He became Deputy Renter Warden in May 1740 and Master in 1749. He died in February 1758 leaving two sons, Isaac and Richard.\nHe may be the Edward Newman who was the son of Isaac Newman of Mash Gibbon in the County of Bucks, apprenticed to a cabinetmaker (also called Edward Newman and probably a close relative) for seven years from 4 June 1706 and admitted to the freedom of the Joiners' Company on 7 September 1714. The elder Edward Newman, who died in March 1748, was recorded in the General Advertiser as 'formerly an eminent Chair-maker in St. Paul's Churchyard'.\n\nEdward Newman was probably the 'Mr Newman cabinet maker' who made new tables and other furniture for the Vintner's Company in 1741-3. A surviving master's chair in rococo style, with upholstered seat and backwas presumably part of this commission (illustrated in Graham, 'Ceremonial and Commemorative Chairs' fig.85). \n\nIn July 1746 he was paid for '2 spring curtains' and in May 1748 for providing two double and four single Windsor chairs, all for Earl Fitzwalter at Moulsham Hall (Dictionary of English Furniture Makers). \n\n<u>Joiners Hall</u>\nThe original sixteenth century hall on the site in Upper Thames Street was destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666, and the rebuilt hall was again destroyed by fire in 1694. Again rebuilt, it was burned down for a third time in 1811. The replacement warehouse was bombed in 1940. A painting of 'The Master, Wardens &amp; Court of Assistants of the Joiners Company receiving the design for their new Hall, 1694' has been on loan to the Guildhall Art Gallery since 1877.\n\r\nThe chair, made in 1754, was used in the late 17th century hall until 1799, when the Company became impoverished, let out the hall as a warehouse and sold the contents except for the master's chair and a few other valuables. According to the later plaque the chair was lent in 1868 to the City of London Freemans Orphan School.  The chair remains the property of the Company and has been on loan to the V&A since 1905.","historicalContext":"Livery companies based in the City of London, such as the Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers, were founded to regulate and protect the interests of their trades. Most trade guilds came into being in close association with a parish church, in this case the church of St. James, Garlickhythe in the City of London. \n\nFor the woodworking trades, the Carpenters' Company was incorporated in 1477 while its offshoot, the Joiners' Company, was given a charter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1571. The Carpenters  Company included craftsmen making architecural woodwork and other work using nails, while the Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers represented craftsmen in wood using joints and glue.  The Joiners were originally know as 'Fusters' (the Roman word for carpenters), and later as 'Ceilers' (possibly from the Latin <i>Caelatores</i>, or carvers). In the sixteenth century the Company was described in its ordinances as relating to the 'art or mistery of Joyners and Ceilers or Carvers'. The confusing term 'ceiler' seems to have referred both to carvers, and to makers of panelling. These titles appear to indicate different aspects of the same craft and its development over time. Joiners were responsible for making cupboards, ceiling boards, wall panelling, and also articles of furniture such as chairs, tables, bedsteads and chests. Other companies representing the woodworking and furniture trades were the Upholders, for upholstery, and the Turners for turned ware. The scope of the Company included the City of London, Westminster, and the Borough of Southwark within two miles of the City of London. The control of the guilds, or Livery Companies, was at its height in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries but was already beginning to decline by the end of the seventeenth century, weakened by the commercial and physical expansion of London.\n\nFurniture-makers were well represented among the members of the Joiners' Company, and records show that in the 1760s they included cabinet-makers, carvers, or carver and gilders. Several well-known entrepreneur furniture makers including Giles Grendey and George Seddon rose to become Master of the Company. In the Joiners' Company in 1750 there were 400 members of the Livery, of whom a minority were furniture-makers, and others were undertakers, timber merchants, and clock-case makers.\n<u>\n</u><u>Company Structure\n</u>Boys in their early teenage years were apprenticed to their master for seven years, at Company's Hall, and entered in the Company's books. At end of the apprenticeship the master and apprentice again appeared at the Hall and the apprentice received his freedom, recorded again in the Company's books.  He then had to serve two years as a journeyman, employed by a master, after which he could continue as a journeyman or qualify as a master joiner by making a piece of work to the satisfaction of the Master and Wardens of the Company.\n\nThe organization of the Joiners' company included, at the lowest level, freemen who had completed their apprenticeships and spent a period of time working as a journeyman. Higher ranking were the Livery, substantial master craftsmen, who paid an extra fee and purchased special clothing, or 'livery'. Membership of the Livery brought social distinction and useful business contacts. The Liverymen elected the Court of Assistants, twelve officials who held the right to nominate future Liverymen and senior officials, and drew up trade regulations. The Liverymen also elect the Master, Upper Warden and Renter Warden, who serve for one year.\n\n\r\n\r\n","briefDescription":"A large ceremonial chair in carved mahogany with a pierced back in the form of gothic arches and scroll-work in Rococo style, with a leather-covered upholstered seat.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"http://www.joinersandceilers.co.uk (accessed 30/3/2011)"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Graham, Clare <u>Ceremonial and Commemorative Chairs in Great Britain</u>, Victoria and Albert Museum 1994, pp.63-65."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Beard, Geoffrey and Christopher Gilbert, eds. <u>Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840</u> Leeds:Furniture History Society & WS Maney, 1986, p. 643"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Edwards, Ralph, <u>Dictionary of English Furniture</u>, London, revised edition 1954, fig. 181"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Kirkham, Pat The London Furniture Trade 1700-1870, in Furniture History, vol. XXIV, 1988, pp.136-144."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Victoria & Albert Museum: An Exhibition of Works of Art belonging to the Livery Companies of London. (London, 1927). "}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"ARMCHAIR\r\nENGLISH; 1754\r\nMahogany\r\n\r\nMaster chair of the Joiners' company carved by Edward Newman in 1754.\r\n\r\nLent by the Worshipful Company of Joiners.","date":{"text":"pre April 2001","earliest":null,"latest":"2001-03-31"}},{"text":"Master’s chair of the Joiners’ and Ceilers’ Company\r\n1754\r\nDesigned and supplied by Edward Newman (about 1692–1758)\r\n\r\nEngland (London)\r\nMahogany, carved \r\nUpholstery: horsehair and leather (replaced)\r\n\r\nLent by the Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers \r\nMuseum no. Loan: Co. of Joiners.1\r\n\r\n\r\nIn earlier times only the most important person in the room would sit in an armchair. By the 18th century, armchairs had become common but extra-large ones continued to be made for ceremonial purposes.\r\n\r\nThis imposing chair was made for a master of a London livery company, the Joiners and Ceilers. Members of the company included cabinet-makers, carvers and gilders. The carving of the chair is exceptionally skilled. It is the work of Edward Newman, who had served as master of the company in 1749. \r\n","date":{"text":"01/12/2012","earliest":"2012-12-01","latest":"2012-12-01"}}],"partNumbers":["LOAN:CO. OF JOINERS.1:1","LOAN:CO. OF JOINERS.1:2"],"accessionNumberNum":"1","accessionNumberPrefix":"LOAN:CO. OF JOINERS","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2024NW2356"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-23","recordCreationDate":"2001-05-17","availableToBook":false}}