An unusual late 19th Century Northern European elm well shaped armchair
This is the first of this style I have seen in 33 years, there’s a definite Arts & Crafts feel with a Chippendale style rear splat, quite an unusual mix.
The long single plank bentwood arms flowing through to become legs with matching shaped stretchers all flow very well, then there’s that English influenced Splat flanked by two reeded uprights.
The thick single plank slight saddle seat seems to be holding all these unusual shapes together.
Anyway an interesting chair and quite a talking point this will be.
The tick two plank top having several knots and a matched sap wood join between planks above a plain fieze with a single moulded drawer to the front retaining the original lock and escutcheon. Resting on square tapered legs.
1870 – 1900
H: 2′ 5″ –
W: 3′ 3″ – 100 cm
D: 2′ 3″ – 66 cm
The base needs a light metho clean to slightly lighten, the faded top will get a light stain to warm, light polish overall then a cut back and soft wax finish.
An unusual 18th Century English country Hepplewhite fruitwood side chair.
The flat top rail and tapered side supports framing the attractive fret carved urn shaped centre splat, having a modern upholstered seat resting on square corner moulded legs.
Unusual late 18th Century English country Chippendale ash, elm and oak occasional chair.
The shaped top rail having a shell carved central motive above a well shaped fret carved center splat, resting on a deep shoe brace support on a well grained two plank seat. Having the original oak applied cushion holders on square section legs jointed by rectangular stretchers.
The two sectioned hinged moulded top above a deep arched fielded panelled iron hinged door, surrounded by an unusual deep rectangular moulded frieze, resting on stump moulded feet.
Having attractive double panelled sides and beautifully knotted backboards.
Woodblock on page of text from ‘Iohn Huighen van Linschoten his discours of Voyages into ye Easte & West Indies’, (London 1598).
A map based on Portuguese charts, from the first English edition of van Linschoten’s ‘Itinerario: Voyages ofte schipvaert van Jan Huyghen van Linschoten naer Ooost ofte Portugaels Indien’, 1579-1592 (1596).
Van Linschoten was a Dutchman who had spent a lengthy period in Portuguese service in Goa. In gathering and publishing higherto unknown information and maps relating to the Spice Islands, he enabled the Dutch and English to challenge the Portuguese monopoly in the East Indies. The placenames on the maps in van Linschoten’s work are in Portuguese, and the last section is a brief history of Portugal, suggesting the possiblity that van Linschoten had perhaps obtained a manuscript copy of the Portuguese geographer Barros’ fabled, incomplete and unpublished work, ‘Treatise on Geography’.
Mr Nathl Oldham Mezzotint by John Faber published 1730-50. Nathanial Oldham of Middlesex was a noteworthy character who served with the British Army in India and ‘inherited a fortune which allowed him to indulge his love of field sports and fine art’ (Tate Gallery). The print by Faber is after an oil by Highmore, which is now lost, Highmore and Oldham enjoying a friendship described as ‘very intimate’ (Einberg Edgerton, p. 48). Oldham was a compulsive collector, he spent his vast fortune assembling a variety of objects including natural history specimens which early reports describe as ‘whimsical gimcracks’ rather than articles of merit to men of knowledge and science. His love for curiosities bankrupted him, and despite auctioning off his collection in 1747 was sent to the King’s Bench prison where he died in debt.
John Faber the younger moved to England from Holland at a young age and studied engraving under his father, also John Faber. He became well known for his fine quality mezzotint portraits, completing about 165 in his lifetime. The portrait of Oldham, after the lost oil painting, shows the eccentric gentleman out shooting with a male companion and his loyal dog. It is probably set on his estate at Ealing, where Oldham resided from 1728-1735.
Mezzotint: a manner of engraving on copper by scraping a roughened surface to produce light and shade.
Nineteen exquisite ornithological subjects, painted by a visitor to the sub-continent in the 1820’s. The representations are anatomically correct and accurate in scale, yet all of these finely executed watercolours – by an unknown but clearly gifted artist – manage to display strong individual character, painstakingly cut as silhouettes and laid down on eleven contemporary folio album pages (510 x 290 mm each) in the style of decoupage, all but three of the specimens with an accompanying contemporary manuscript label cut and pasted onto the page beside it, all the illustrations in an excellent state of preservation, the colours still vibrant, the paper stable, some residual tape marks to corners and margins of the sheets which do not detract, one of the captions identifying a location (Bellary, in Karnataka, southwest India) and a date (January 1828).
The manuscript labels read as follows:
Black-headed Oriole Mango bird. Lark. Alanda sp. The birds appear in October in immense flocks and depart in March – often mistaken for Ortolans.Plover. Water Wagtail. Eagle. Shot at Bellany Jan 1828. Breadth from Wing to Wing 6 feet. Half size. Falco Sp. Chysactos. Spur Foul: Tetrao sp. Partridge. Short tail Tern. Water Wagtail. Bansputtah or Bamboo Frequenter. Common Florican. Stone Chat. Malacilla Rubicola. Three-toed Quail (male and female). Golden Oriole. Female. Golden Oriole. Male. Grey Shrike. Female. Lanius Sinerius.
