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High chair, English, unknown maker, early nineteenth century modified in the twentieth century
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High chair, XF55, English, unknown maker, early nineteenth century modified in the twentieth century, mahogany and plywood, ©Sir John Soane's Museum, London, Photograph: Hugh Kelly.
High chair, English, unknown maker, early nineteenth century modified in the twentieth century
Mahogany and plywood
Height: 108cm
Height (to seat): 71cm
Depth: 37cm
Height (to seat): 71cm
Depth: 37cm
Museum number: XF56
Not on display
Curatorial note
Incorporating the frame of an early nineteenth-century stool, with two rungs front and back and one stretcher on each side. A high plywood back, arms, seat and side panels have been crudely nailed to the frame, perhaps at some time during the early twentieth century.
This strange piece seems to be the skeleton of one of Soane’s original office ‘stools covered with leather, the seats stuffed with horse,1 which has been encased in plywood. It is not known when this work was carried out, but the piece in its current form has as far as we know always been in the Student’s Room. The measurements of the original frame beneath the plywood are H: 69 cm W 27.5 cm D: 33cm with the stretchers and rungs all being 3.1cm deep.
At the time of Soane’s death there were three stools remaining in the ‘Student’s Room’.2
1 A.B. Inventory, Furniture and Fittings inventory, 1837, p. 407.
2 No photographs show this strange piece anywhere in the Museum and the recollections of staff can only place it definitely in the Student’s Room from the 1980s. However, its presence there does provide a potential link, however tenuous, to Soane’s office furniture.
This strange piece seems to be the skeleton of one of Soane’s original office ‘stools covered with leather, the seats stuffed with horse,1 which has been encased in plywood. It is not known when this work was carried out, but the piece in its current form has as far as we know always been in the Student’s Room. The measurements of the original frame beneath the plywood are H: 69 cm W 27.5 cm D: 33cm with the stretchers and rungs all being 3.1cm deep.
At the time of Soane’s death there were three stools remaining in the ‘Student’s Room’.2
1 A.B. Inventory, Furniture and Fittings inventory, 1837, p. 407.
2 No photographs show this strange piece anywhere in the Museum and the recollections of staff can only place it definitely in the Student’s Room from the 1980s. However, its presence there does provide a potential link, however tenuous, to Soane’s office furniture.
Soane collections online is being continually updated. If you wish to find out more or if you have any further information about this object please contact us: worksofart@soane.org.uk