A FINE SET OF THREE GEORGE II NEEDLEWORK-UPHOLSTERED MAHOGANY BACK STOOLS Circa 1756

Commissioned by Marmaduke, 4^th Baron Langdale (1771). Holme Hall, Holme-on Spalding-Moor, from John Whitby, 1756

Thence by descent to:

Marmaduke, 5^th and last Baron Langdale (d. 1777)

His daughter Mary (d. 1841) wife of the 17^th Lord Stourton

Their fourth son, the Hon. Philip Stourton (1793-1860) heir to the Langdale properties including Holme Hall

His son Henry Stourton (1844-1896)

His daughter Amy, wife of Frederick Dundas Harford

Her daughter Joan, Lady Bannerman, by whom sold, Christie’s, London, June 25, 1981, lot 50

The present three back stools and the accompanying pair in the following lot were originally part of a larger suite which included another back stool and a settee commissioned by Marmaduke, 4^th Baron Langdale from the London cabinet-maker and upholsterer John Whitby in 1756. Fortunately, the original manuscript bill survives for this purchase, the contents itemizing in fine detail the various materials used in the making of and the upholstery of the suite. These include the quantities of ‘tacks’ and ‘Princis metel nailes lackered in gold lacker’ and the ‘best Town made Casters’, together with the ‘Greensilk Ferrit ‘ (a tape or binding made of cotton or silk) ‘to go all round the backs and stiles’ and the ‘Green moreen’ (woolen material) ‘to cover the back Backs’, (i.e. the reverse sides), the main covers to be in needlework. This was presumably supplied by the client as it is not included in the account which does, however, include the charges for fitting. It is interesting to note that the account includes extra ‘nailes’ which were ‘sent down’ with the settee indicating that its needlework was not ready when the suite was delivered to the client. The account also includes the cost of the ‘Packing cases’ and for the ‘warfage and sufferance on board a ship’ indicating that the ‘Goods’ were sent by sea. This was not unusual in the 18^th century due to the notoriously bad condition of the road system, a number of Thomas Chippendale’s clients including Sir Rowland Winn of Nostell Priory and The Earl of Dumfries using this method of shipment. Edwin Lascelles’ steward is recorded as enquiring ‘about the shipping rates via Hull to the inland port of Tadcaster’ (Gilbert, op. cit., p. 29), and it is presumably to the latter port that the shipment was consigned.

The covers, variously worked in colored silks and wool in gros and petit point, are undoubtedly the work of a professional needle-worker. The figural compositions are based on subjects taken from the first century Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses. This work relates in verse tales taken from classical and near eastern mythology which describe the miraculous transformation into a new shape divine or human beings into animals, plants or other natural objects. A number of editions of Ovid’s works were published in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, notably one with engravings by Crispin van de Passe published in Amsterdam 1602, many of which were then used by the needle-worker in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. A notable suite of chairs dating from the 1730’s at Stoneleigh Abbey also retains the original needlework covers with subjects taken from Ovid’s works (Beard, op. cit., p. 184, fig. 180).

Baron Langdale’s seat, Holme Hall, was at Holme On Spalding Moor, a parish in the wapentake of Harthill, five miles south-west of Market Weighton in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It was designed for the fourth Lord Langford by William Wakefield, a Yorkshire architect, the building being completed by Christmas 1722. Further major alterations were undertaken for the fifth Baron by the York architect John Carr c. 1756 at the same time as the present chairs were commissioned from John Whitby. Further alterations were made to the house in the 1840s and in the 20^th century. The exterior is now faced with cement and retains few of the original architectural details, although the interior, particularly the dining room, retains much of the decorative wood work and plasterwork dating from Carr’s work in the 1750s and probably executed by Jeremiah Hargreave of Hull (Pevsner, op. cit., pp. 474-475).

John Whitby is recorded in the London Polling Lists of 1749 as an ‘upholsterer’ in Mount Street Westminster, working from this address between 1741 and 1757. Unfortunately, little is known of his activities or his house style other than the present chairs commissioned by Lord Langdale, a number of entries recorded in the account books at Holkham Hall, Norfolk between 1741 and 1745, and a record of work carried out for Thomas Foley of Stoke Edith, near Hereford. This included an inventory of the contents of Mrs. Foley’s house in lower Grosvenor Street in November 1756 and repairs and alterations to some minor furnishings at a total cost of £50 1s 3d. between June 1756 and January 1757.  The Holkham accounts are a little more revealing but as yet none of the furniture supplied by Whitby has been identified with pieces remaining in the collection. These include two card tables of ‘pigeon wood’ at a cost of £12 12s in 1741, several sets of chairs and a table including twenty chairs for the ‘old House at Holkham’ at £16 and four leather chairs at £1 19s each and 24 Windsor chairs and ‘2 Large ones at £4 6s and twelve chairs with rush bottoms at £3 12s in 1742-43. Other than the pair of card tables, the chairs would all appear to be of utilitarian design and use.       

See:

Christopher Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, 1978

Margaret Swain, Figures on Fabric, 1980

Geoffrey Beard and Christopher Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, 1986, p. 964

Geoffrey Beard, Upholsterers and Interior Furnishing in England 1530-1840, 1997

Nikolaus Pevsner and David Neave, The Buildings of England. Yorkshire: York and the East Riding, 2^nd edition 2002