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Lot Essay
This chair is one of a set that are identified with either of two sets in the 1770 inventory of Chiswick House. In the Red Velvet Room ('No. 28 The Crimson Velvet Room') were '8 gilt back stools, cover'd with velvet' and in the Green Velvet Room ('No. 32 The Lady's Dressing Room') were 'Eight gilt back stools, cover'd with green velvet, and serge cases, 2 ditto elbow chairs'.
The two velvet rooms served as ante-chambers to the two 'state' bedchambers on the facade front of Chiswick House. It is not at all certain in which of the two rooms this set stood and indeed no attempt to place them was made in T. Rosoman, 'The decoration and use of the principal apartments at Chiswick House', The Burlington Magazine, October 1985, p. 670. It has been suggested that this set is more likely to be from the Green Velvet Room as the colour green is associated with Venus's role in nature, symbolising eternal or evergreen love. The symbolism of the chairs is strikingly that of Venus, with her mask on the knees and her scallop-shell on the cresting. The scales on the sides of the front legs and on the back legs allude to the triumph of the goddess, when dolphins drew her shell-chariot to land, where grass and flowers sprang from the touch of her foot. In addition, ribbon-guilloches of imbricated libation-paterae pour from the foliage below the Venus masks on the font legs.
DISPERSAL OF THIS SET
Two of the chairs from the set were sold anonymously (but from the collection of the late Marquess of Downshire, Murlough House, Dundrum, Co. Down, Northern Ireland), Phillips London, 13 February 1990, lot 60. They were bought by H. Blairman and Sons on behalf of English Heritage and are now at Chiswick. They are now covered in blue velvet as part of the 1994 restoration of the Blue Velvet Room. The sophistication of the removable upholstery makes it impossible to see the seatrails but the Phillips catalogue stated that they were replaced.
A single chair was sold Sotheby's London, 18 July 1975, lot 42. It was bought by the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Two of the chairs are at Chatsworth.
One further 18th century chair is at Chiswick in the Red Velvet Room, covered in that material. This may be the V & A chair, on loan, but it is labelled as having been bought by the Ministry of Works in 1974.
In addition there are two obviously 19th or 20th Century chairs at Chiswick. One is covered in red velvet and displayed in that room but is unlabelled. Another is covered in green velvet and is displayed in that room and labelled as having been bought by the Ministry of Works in 1975.
Most of the original contents of Chiswick had been removed to Chatsworth before or in 1892 when the villa was let as an asylum, but a significant portion was dispersed. The dispersal of this set appears to have been very thorough. The chair illustrated by Lenygon, loc. cit., in 1914 was then owned by Lord Newton of Lyme Park, Cheshire (now National Trust). The chairs sold at Phillips were owned by Lord Downshire when sold. Neither family have any known connection to Chiswick.
The tables that have been bought by English Heritage and which will return to Chiswick after conservation were acquired by the 3rd Marquess of Bute when he left Chiswick in 1891 after renting it for some years. They were subsequently sold by the Bute family, in these Rooms, 3 July 1996, lot 35.
The two velvet rooms served as ante-chambers to the two 'state' bedchambers on the facade front of Chiswick House. It is not at all certain in which of the two rooms this set stood and indeed no attempt to place them was made in T. Rosoman, 'The decoration and use of the principal apartments at Chiswick House', The Burlington Magazine, October 1985, p. 670. It has been suggested that this set is more likely to be from the Green Velvet Room as the colour green is associated with Venus's role in nature, symbolising eternal or evergreen love. The symbolism of the chairs is strikingly that of Venus, with her mask on the knees and her scallop-shell on the cresting. The scales on the sides of the front legs and on the back legs allude to the triumph of the goddess, when dolphins drew her shell-chariot to land, where grass and flowers sprang from the touch of her foot. In addition, ribbon-guilloches of imbricated libation-paterae pour from the foliage below the Venus masks on the font legs.
DISPERSAL OF THIS SET
Two of the chairs from the set were sold anonymously (but from the collection of the late Marquess of Downshire, Murlough House, Dundrum, Co. Down, Northern Ireland), Phillips London, 13 February 1990, lot 60. They were bought by H. Blairman and Sons on behalf of English Heritage and are now at Chiswick. They are now covered in blue velvet as part of the 1994 restoration of the Blue Velvet Room. The sophistication of the removable upholstery makes it impossible to see the seatrails but the Phillips catalogue stated that they were replaced.
A single chair was sold Sotheby's London, 18 July 1975, lot 42. It was bought by the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Two of the chairs are at Chatsworth.
One further 18th century chair is at Chiswick in the Red Velvet Room, covered in that material. This may be the V & A chair, on loan, but it is labelled as having been bought by the Ministry of Works in 1974.
In addition there are two obviously 19th or 20th Century chairs at Chiswick. One is covered in red velvet and displayed in that room but is unlabelled. Another is covered in green velvet and is displayed in that room and labelled as having been bought by the Ministry of Works in 1975.
Most of the original contents of Chiswick had been removed to Chatsworth before or in 1892 when the villa was let as an asylum, but a significant portion was dispersed. The dispersal of this set appears to have been very thorough. The chair illustrated by Lenygon, loc. cit., in 1914 was then owned by Lord Newton of Lyme Park, Cheshire (now National Trust). The chairs sold at Phillips were owned by Lord Downshire when sold. Neither family have any known connection to Chiswick.
The tables that have been bought by English Heritage and which will return to Chiswick after conservation were acquired by the 3rd Marquess of Bute when he left Chiswick in 1891 after renting it for some years. They were subsequently sold by the Bute family, in these Rooms, 3 July 1996, lot 35.