Chair

Designer Thomas Jeckyll (English, 1827 - 1881)

Manufacturer Barnard, Bishop & Barnards (English, 1826 - 1955)

Dateca. 1878

MediumIron and oak

DimensionsOverall: 32 1/2 × 14 × 13 3/4 inches (82.55 × 35.56 × 34.93 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust through exchange of the gifts of the Laura Nelson Kirkwood Residuary Trust and Mrs. W. W. Townley and the bequests of Miriam Babbitt Simpson and Mrs. Peter T. Bohan

Object number2010.19.1

Signed"BARNARD, BISHOP & BARNARD" cast into central roundel in the front of the back of chair

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

Architecture, Design and Decorative Arts

Terms

DescriptionSmall cast iron chair with mahogany seat; the back, seat and legs all cast in one piece. The upper back decorated with a five-part fan with blooming roses; the central part of the back with a roundel of roses, BARNARD, BISHOP & BARNARDS; and the lower back with fish scales. The skirt with central scroll and petal motifs and front cabriolet legs terminating with simple scroll feet.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

A technical tour de force when it was designed in 1878, this chair was produced as a single piece of cast iron. The cloud or fish-scale motifs on the back reflect architect and designer Thomas Jeckyll’s study of Japanese art. At the same time, the chair’s fan-back shows the influence of German and Austrian furniture from the 1820s and 1830s. The curving legs display the continuing inspiration of mid-1700s French Rococo models.

Provenance

Purchased from H. Blairman & Sons, London by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO 2010.

Published References

Model, Illustrated Catalogue (London: Barnard, Bishop and Barnards, 1878), 47.

Model, George A. Sala. Paris Herself Again in 1878-79 Vol. 2 (London: Remington and Co., 1880) 40.

Model, Furniture Trade Exhibition (April 27, 1883): 207.

Model, Complete Catalogue (London: Barnard, Bishop and Barnards, 1884), 57.

Model, Charles Spencer. The Aesthetic Movement, 1869-1890, exh. cat. (London: Academy Editions, 1973) 38-39 (repro.).

Charlotte Gere and Michael Whiteway. Nineteenth-century Design: From Pugin to Mackintosh. (New York: Abrams, 1994) 151 (repro.).

Charlotte Berger, “Thomas Jeckyll 1827-1881,” 2 vols., (BA thesis, Leeds University, 1994).

Susan Weber, and Catherine Arbuthnott. Thomas Jeckyll: Architect and Designer, 1827-1881.( New Haven: Published for the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, New York, by Yale University Press, 2003) 231-234.

The Decorative Arts Trust. “Exhibits and Links,” Accessed May 1, 2012. http://www.decorativeartstrust.org/ex_links.html. (repro.)

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