| P3 has note
| - Chair, the back rectangular with rounded top corners; cabriole front legs and heavily raked back legs terminating in paw feet, the top of the legs carved with lion masks; the deep seat rails curved in profile and carved in the centre front with a satyr mask and in the centre of the sides with shells, all flanked by scrolling foliage.
The chair is upholstered with a loose cover of green silk velvet, edged with silk braid. This removable cover is kept in place by a series of eyelet holes which hook over metal pegs fitted to the seat rails. Some of the chairs in the set of which this one is a part retain fragmentary evidence of their original silk 'scarves' - silk flaps that hung from the top edge of the back, normally out of sight behind the chairs, but which could be folded over to protect the front of the chair-back when in use. While these protective 'scarves' are mentioned in archival sources, these chairs are the only instance so far identified of surviving evidence of them.
The structural upholstery is of linen webbing, linen (ticking) base cloth, horsehair stuffing, and linen stuffing-covers. The webbing and base cloth is visible only in the seat.
The legs and seat facings are of oil-gilded walnut. In carved areas, the oil gilding has been applied as a layer of ochre-coloured oil or paint brushed directly onto the wood, with gold leaf laid on top. The sanded areas of the frame are gilded over a 'sanded' ground. Coarse sand was laid onto the wooden surface of the chair frame as the first stage of gilding; layers of ochre-coloured paint or oil, followed by gold leaf, were then applied on top of the sand. The use of a sanded ground is unusual on gilded chairs but became common in the 1720s on gilded picture and mirror frames, primarily those made in a William Kent style. On this set of chairs, the contrast between the smooth gilded surface of the carved sections and the duller matt finish of the sanded ground works to throw up the elaborate ornament of the carving.
The use of oil rather than water gilding is unusual in a set of furniture as grand as this one. It is likely that oil gilding was used to relate the chairs to the architectural gilding used elsewhere in the room, which used the same technique.
There have been some later changes to the surface of the chair. Small areas of both carved and sanded wood have been over-painted with bronze paint. In some areas, there is a second layer of sanding which is lifting off the chair. This second layer is found mainly over joints on the chair, and suggests areas where repairs have been made to cover opened cracks in the joints. (en)
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