(Probable) Prototype for Prince's Chamber Chairs by A. W. N. Pugin

Chair

Manufactured by John Webb, New Bond Street

c.1847

Height 40" (101 cm); width 18" (46 cm); depth 20" (51 cm)

Stained pine

"This chair appears to be a prototype for the chairs in the Prince’s Chamber in the House of Lords made by John Webb, New Bond Street, the seat being drop-in, and the back never having been upholstered" (Whiteway).

Image and caption © copyright The Fine Art Society with Haslam & Whiteway Ltd. Formatting and commentary below by Jacqueline Banerjee. [Click on the image for a larger picture.]

Pugin's collaboration with John Webb, as a dealer in antiquities, seems to have started when he was working on St Mary's College, Oscott, in the West Midlands (1837-41; see Hill 179), and in fact it was Webb to whom Pugin turned in 1847 for the lavishly ornamented Royal Throne in the House of Lords (Alexander 82). The Prince's Chamber was also splendidly furnished in collaboration with Webb, who made up Pugin's designs for "two octagonal tables and sixteen chairs, as well as two clock cases, all in oak" (Cannadine 124).

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Sources

Alexander, Michael. Medievalism: The Middle Ages in Modern England. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.

Cannadine, David. The Houses of Parliament: History, Art, Architecture. London and New York: Merrell, 2000.

Hill, Rosemary. God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2008. [Review]

Whiteway, Michael. A. W. N. Pugin 1812-1852: An Exhibition Catalogue. London: The Fine Art Society with Haslam & Whiteway Ltd., 7-23 December 2011.

Last modified 29 May 2014