{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O81508"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O81508/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011FD3314/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011FD3314/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2011FD3314","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011FD3315","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FR1256","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FR3954","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JW1155","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O81508/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O81508","accessionNumber":"W.48-1934","objectType":"Settee","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This comes from a set of at least seven chairs and two settees (of which the second settee and three chairs are in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Merseyside, and four chairs are currently displayed at Chiswick House, London). It was probably made to furnish one of a suite of parade rooms in an aristocratic house. The original decoration seems to have been brown paint with gilt details, so it was perhaps used in a saloon rather than a drawing room (which in an important house would typically have fully gilded furniture). \r\n\r\nThe suite is similar to furniture made for several great Palladian houses designed by the architect William Kent (1685-1748), whose distinctive style was inspired by 16th- and 17th-century architecture and interiors that he saw in Italy. Kent was the first British architect to concern himself as much with the design of furnishings as with the architectural shell of a house. The scrolled legs and the bold naturalistic carving of this settee - with cornucopiae, scales, swags of fruit and shells - are typical of his style.","physicalDescription":"A settee of carved, white painted and gilded walnut and fir, in the style of William Kent, the frame decorated with boldly carved cornucopiae, swags of fruit and scaly shields, the seat rail carved with Greek key and the ends of the arms with satyr masks. The seat and back are covered with silk damask","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Hallett, William","id":"A8466"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":"attributed to"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Walnut","id":"AAT12476"},{"text":"Spruce","id":"AAT12726"},{"text":"Beech","id":"AAT11948"},{"text":"Oak","id":"AAT12264"},{"text":"Ash","id":"AAT11937"}],"techniques":[{"text":"Joining","id":"AAT137062"},{"text":"Painting","id":"x30598"},{"text":"Gilding","id":"AAT53789"},{"text":"Carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Carved, gilt and painted walnut pieced out in fir, with beech, oak and ash secondary woods.\r\n\n\nNoted from examination of the painted surface by Zoe Allan, V&amp;A Gilding conservator on 27th November 2012.\r\nAfter several scrapes and looking with close magnification at the layer structure it seems that it was originally completely oil gilded and that at a later date it was completely painted a dark black brown.\r\n\r\nThe following was observed throughout over the whole surface with no difference between the flat and high points of carving.\r\n\r\nWood\r\nWhite layer (possibly oil)\r\nGold leaf \r\nBrown layer (possibly oil)\r\nThe brown is covered with the current scheme of white and some elements are gilded.\r\n\r\n","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"}],"styles":[{"text":"Palladian","id":"AAT21161"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2011FD3314","2011FD3315","2012FR1256","2012FR3954","2017JW1155"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"003","id":"THES343676"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Settee","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1735-1740","earliest":"1735-01-01","latest":"1740-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"39.5","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"67","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"approx, across arms","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"28.75","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"101","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"170","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"approx., across arms","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"73","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"The motif of cornucopia was repeated in a number of designs for furniture by William Kent. It appeared first on a table designed by Kent for Houghton Hall Norfolk.  A set of chairs and a settee at Holkham Hall, Norfolk, attributed with good reason to Kent, show a pair of conjoined cornucopia on the top rail of the settee.  This set is illustrated and discussed in\nWeber, Susan, 'Kent and the Georgian Baroque Style in Furniture: Domestic Commissions', in Susan Weber ed. <u>William Kent. Designing Georgian Britain</u> (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, published for the Bard Graduate Center, New York, 2013 (ISBN: 978-0-300-19618-4), published in connection with the exhibition of the same name held at the Bard Center, New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2013-2014, pp. 469-526, illustrated on p. 482 and discussed pp. 481-2.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"A settee of carved, white painted and gilded walnut and pine, in the style of William Kent, the frame decorated with boldly carved cornucopiae, swags of fruit and scaly shields, the seat rail carved with Greek key and the ends of the arms with satyr masks","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"This model is in the style of William Kent, but was not necessarily designed by him. The manufacture is attributed to William Hallett on the basis of comparison with other pieces of nearly the same pattern, some of which incorporate a caned internal seat frame such as is also found in a suite of mahogany chairs from Holkham that have documentary links to Hallett.\n\nFor a discussion of the set with which this settee is associated, see Lucy Wood, <i>The Upholstered Furniture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery</i>, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2008, vol. I, no. 29, pp. 330-345.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["W.48-1934"],"accessionNumberNum":"48","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":1934,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-08-15","recordCreationDate":"2003-06-16","availableToBook":true}}