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Henry Williams (active 1728-38)

Open armchair 1737

Giltwood, velvet | 128.5 x 77.5 x 74.0 cm (whole object) | RCIN 31178

Communication Gallery, Hampton Court Palace

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  • Giltwood open armchair, tall, padded back and rectangular padded seat covered in bottle green velvet. Frame of back carved with overlapping roundels, the cresting with two broad scrolls carved with a scale pattern and acanthus centered by scallop shell with fruit.

    Henry Williams became chairmaker to the Royal Household in 1729. In 1737 he supplied two armchairs (RCIN 31178) and twenty-four matching stools (RCIN 1230) for the Queen's Withdrawing Room, Hampton Court. His invoice reads as follows:

    ‘For the Queen’s Withdrawg Room at Ditto [i.e. Hampton Court]
    For 3 very large Window Cornishes finely carved £18.0.0.
    For 2 Large Arm Chair frames finely carved & Gilt £32.0.0.
    For 24 Square stool frames suitable £192.0.0.’

    Today, there are twenty-three stools of this pattern in the Royal Collection, divided between Hampton Court Palace and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. A number survive in other collections.

    The x-frame design was probably a vestigial manifestation of a sixteenth-century English or Italian throne chair . Though not strictly thrones, the armchairs were designed to have a similar significance - representing the King and Queen in the room. In practice there was no requirement for seating in a Drawing Room as the King and Queen circulated among their guests and the assembled company were obliged to remain standing in the Royal presence.

    Though made by Henry Williams, the designer of this set of seat furniture was almost certainly William Kent, the architect responsible for the refurbishments of the State Apartments at Hampton Court in the late 1730s. The comparison of the backs of the armchairs with those of the saloon chairs at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, strengthens this attribution.

    The “Green genoa damask” to cover the seat furniture was supplied by the mercer, Mathew Vernon, at a cost of 16s 6d per yard. Sarah Gilbert, upholsterer, was paid, according to the same account book, ‘for stuffing up & covering with green Damask 2 Armchairs and 24 square stools, and for Materials us’d £34.10.0’. William Weekes, laceman, responsible for passementerie, supplied a quantity of such material for the edgings of the soft furnishings in the room, which included the wall hangings, curtains and cornices, as well as the chairs and stools. This last document is especially interesting as Mantegna’s Triumphs of Caesar had recently been moved from the Queen’s Gallery into this room, where they were used, along with the green damask, to cover up Thornhill’s wall paintings of Queen Anne and Prince George of Denmark.

    Text adapted from The First Georgians; Art and Monarchy 1714 - 1760, London, 2014
    Provenance

    Supplied to George II in 1737, for the Queen's Withdrawing Room, Hampton Court Palace.

  • Medium and techniques

    Giltwood, velvet

    Measurements

    128.5 x 77.5 x 74.0 cm (whole object)


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