AN UNUSUAL SET OF TWELVE EBONIZED MAHOGANY BARLEY TWIST TURNED DINING CHAIRS

11471 AN UNUSUAL SET OF TWELVE EBONIZED MAHOGANY BARLEY TWIST TURNED DINING CHAIRS IN THE ANTIQUARIAN TASTE, COMPRISING TEN SINGLE CHAIRS AND TWO CARVERS, POSSIBLY BY WILLIAM TROTTER AFTER A DESIGN BY WILLIAM BURN Probably Scottish. Second Quarter of the Nineteenth Century. Measurements: Carvers: Height: 36? (91.4 cm); Height to seat: 19? (48.3 cm); Width: […]

Research
Of ebonized mahogany with gilded highlights. Each with padded backs set to each side with barley twist columnar supports headed by a square block set with gilded roundels and surmounted by a turned knop, and a conforming roundel-mounted block at the base of each upright. The carvers chairs with padded armrest raised on barley twist columnar support and joined to the backrest at another roundel-mounted block. The upholstered seat rests upon a plain frieze rail from which four barley twist legs emerge, each set with gilded ring around top, conforming roundel-mounted block at the base of each leg, and inverted cup shaped feet set with original brass casters stamped “Cope Patent.” The four legs united by a barley twist ‘H’ stretcher.

Marks:
Casters stamped:
Cope’s Patent

These twist turned ebonized and gilded chairs, dating from circa 1835, are extremely close in form to a set of twelve dining chairs designed by Scottish architect William Burn and made by the Heirs of William Trotter for the Duke of Buccleuch at Dalkeith Palace in 1836 (today at Drumlanrig Castle).

The chairs are a remarkable example of British Antiquarianism, rendered in a form that is particularly true to seventeenth century design, which inspired them. Antiquarianism in its first phase was highly intellectual and rarefied, attracting patrons whose objectives were as scholarly as they were aesthetically pleasing, and who insisted on the correct use of authentic ornament and design, unlike the more fanciful fusions that later populated Victorian interiors. The Scottish Baronial style was inspired by Renaissance architecture and relied on the use of dark, heavily carved woods; popularity of the Baronial taste intensified after the 1822 visit to Scotland by the king.

Measurements:
Carvers: Height: 36? (91.4 cm); Height to seat: 19? (48.3 cm); Width: 24 3/4? (62.9 cm); Depth: 25 1/2? (64.8 cm).
Side Chairs: Height: 36? (91.4 cm); Height to seat: 19? (48.3 cm); Width: 17 5/8? (44.8 cm); Depth: 24 1/2? (62.2 cm).

Full research report available.