Inscribed
Small Beads / Cast upon the fillets / of the Stumps, Cast Ornaments, Burnished and Brass Nails. (verso, addressed to) Mr Robert Kennett / Cabinet Maker, No 67 / New Bond St
Medium and dimensions
Brown pen on laid secretary paper with two fold marks, sealing wax on verso, old tear (255 x 155)
Hand
unidentified
Notes
The drawing was folded, sealed, stamped (black ink, triangular stamp with PENY POST PAYD), addressed and sent to Robert Kennett, 37 New Bond Street, London. Kent's Directory, 1794, has Kennett & Co, Upholsterers &c at 67 New Bond Street, London.The economical drawing shows an elbow chair with upholstered seat and back, the frame decorated with 'cast ornaments' including 'small beads' upon the 'burnished fillet of the stumps' or frame, and a pair of ram's heads; the delicate baluster legs have leaf enrichment. The refined design is for what Chippendale (and others before him) called a 'French chair' though it does not correspond, for example, with his published designs (plates XIX-XIII, The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director, 3rd ed., 1762. The previous furniture drawings (42/10-13) have been associated with Denton Park, Yorkshire designed by John Carr of York (1723-1807) but the writing and drawing hand is not his though it's quality suggests that it may be that of an unidentified architect.
Level
Drawing
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