Lot Essay
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
J. Kenworthy-Browne, 'Notes on the Furniture by Thomas Chippendale the Younger at Stourhead', The National Trust Year Book, 1975-76, pp. 93-101
The use of Egyptian herms at the head of tapered legs is one of the most distinctively French features of the furniture by Thomas Chippendale Junior at Stourhead in Wiltshire. The familiarity of this form from Jacob fauteuils supports the slightly circumstantial evidence that Chippendale Junior visited France during the Peace of Amiens in 1802-03. It was used on several pieces at Stourhead supplied before 1805, including the great 'philosophers' library table and the curved library armchairs. It has been suggested that Chippendale was the first maker in England to use this motif which was to become such a feature of George Smith's published designs. It is notable that Thomas Hope did not use the Egyptian head, even though he had visited Egypt and had an entire Egyptian Room at Duchess Street.
One of the most unusual features of the library furniture supplied in 1804-05 is the combination of rectangular fluted 'washboard' panels above the Egyptian terms (Kenworthy-Browne, op. cit., p. 100).
Although it is now very faded, this table has a ebonised line running through the bottom edge of the frieze to bind the whole together; this also occurs on the library table at Stourhead.
The discovery of three pages of Juvenal's Satires (in translation) has confirmed that Thomas Chippendale Junior was a description which he used himself. The pages were sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 6 October 1994, and were acquired by the Chippendale Society
J. Kenworthy-Browne, 'Notes on the Furniture by Thomas Chippendale the Younger at Stourhead', The National Trust Year Book, 1975-76, pp. 93-101
The use of Egyptian herms at the head of tapered legs is one of the most distinctively French features of the furniture by Thomas Chippendale Junior at Stourhead in Wiltshire. The familiarity of this form from Jacob fauteuils supports the slightly circumstantial evidence that Chippendale Junior visited France during the Peace of Amiens in 1802-03. It was used on several pieces at Stourhead supplied before 1805, including the great 'philosophers' library table and the curved library armchairs. It has been suggested that Chippendale was the first maker in England to use this motif which was to become such a feature of George Smith's published designs. It is notable that Thomas Hope did not use the Egyptian head, even though he had visited Egypt and had an entire Egyptian Room at Duchess Street.
One of the most unusual features of the library furniture supplied in 1804-05 is the combination of rectangular fluted 'washboard' panels above the Egyptian terms (Kenworthy-Browne, op. cit., p. 100).
Although it is now very faded, this table has a ebonised line running through the bottom edge of the frieze to bind the whole together; this also occurs on the library table at Stourhead.
The discovery of three pages of Juvenal's Satires (in translation) has confirmed that Thomas Chippendale Junior was a description which he used himself. The pages were sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 6 October 1994, and were acquired by the Chippendale Society