This entry is being amended.(8/7/14) This armchair is one of a number of objects bought in 1914 from the executors of J.F. Fitzhenry. Fitzhenry was in contact with the V&A for over forty years before his death in 1913, and from the mid-1880s onwards he deposited a large part of his collection on loan and donated selected items to the Museum.(1) He was a friend of the more celebrated collector George Salting (whose bequest in 1910 transformed the Museum's collections), and indeed of J. Pierrepoint Morgan. (2) According to an internal memorandum written shortly after Fitzhenry's death, his collection had been 'formed during many years past with the advice and assistance of officers of this Museum [...]'. (3) Disappointed in the expectation of the bequest of the entire collection, the Museum selected about fifty items (sculpture, ceramics, silver and textiles as well as furniture) to purchase from his executors, 'at very reasonable cost', before the rest was sold at Christie's. (4) When acquired by the Museum in 1914, this chair had been regilded, the previous decoration apparently having first been stripped to the bare wood, and it was covered in a relatively recent green silk damask, trimmed with braid at the edges. (5) To judge by the jute webbing (late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century) that still survives in the seat, the chair had probably been not just recovered but wholly reupholstered, perhaps at the same time as it was regilded. No trace has been found of the original covers, but the tack-hole evidence on the arms and back uprights (see Description) indicate that the upholstery was originally more highly domed than now, and that the seat covers were taken around the back face of the back uprights. On a pari of mid-eighteenth century chairs on loan to the V&A, stamped by Falconet, on which the upholstery appears to be undisturbed, the wool velvet covers are taken around the back uprights in this way (Museum number: LOAN:BUCKS CC.2). (6) In 1968 the chair was painted yellow, green and red over the later gilding, then reupholstered and covered in yellow, plain-weave silk, trimmed on the back and seat with a braid that was dyed to match the green-paint, and close-nailed at the edges with brass-headed nails (tending to blur the elaborate outline of the carving). (7) The upholstery was commissioned from Tracy & Taylor through the dealer Geoffrey Rose (8), and in 1970 the braid was replaced with a wider version. (9) The late Peter Thornton, formerly Keeper of Furniture and Woodwork at the V&A, explained his thinking about this decorative scheme in a letter to Geoffrey Rose: 'The [...] Louis XV armchair [...] has been painted to match the yellow silk with which we now want it to be upholstered. It is to have a ribbon stitched to the upholstery following the contours and this ribbon will need careful selection and then have to be dyed green to match the green of the paint-work. We are trying here to reproduce the effect which could be seen originally on many mid-18th century chairs which were, of course, painted and not gilded. The gilding has, in most cases, been added since by people wanting greater opulence than even the French aristocracy under Louis XV demanded! The gilding on this chair was in fact put on in the 19th century, and so we have felt ourselves free to reconstruct a painted decoration for it. Subsequent generations can quite easily remove this paint-work should they wish to do so, in which case they will reveal the 19th century gilding again.' (10) In 1997 the polychrome decoration was partially removed from the back right leg, to reveal the pre-1914 matt and burnished gilding. Althought his gilt surface is clearly renewed, it does seem highly likely that this sumptuously carved chair - with the suite of which it formed a part - was originally gilded. Notes 1. V&A Archive, MA/1/F677, nominal file: Fitzhenry, Joseph Henry, in 22 parts. Part 22 comprises an index of loans and gifts from 1870 to 1912: a terracotta group and a mother-of-pearl miniature deposited on loan in 1870; a further 3,148 items deposited from 1885 onwards (MA/1/F677/22). Fitzhenry lived successively at 10 Bury Street, St. James's (1886); 25 Queen Anne's Gate (from 1889); and finally (from 1912) 12 thurloe Square, opposite the Museum. 2. Anna Somers Cocks, The Victoria and Albert Museum. The making of the collection (Leicester: Windward, 1980), p. 53; New York Times, 2 April 1913, p. 3. 3. V&A Archive, MA/1/F677, nominal file: Fitzhenry, Joseph Henry: minute paper 13/3998, signed by Cecil Smith, 22 August 1913 (MA/1/F677/20). 4. ibid. The acutal purchases were authorised the following year, including fourteen pieces of furniture, W.14 to 27-1914, 23 April 1914 (MA/1/F677/21 14/2308M). The sales at Christie's were held on 17 November 1913 (silver), 18-19 November and 24-26 November 1913 (works of art), 21 November 1913 (pictures), 1 December 1913 (books), 3 December 1913 (engravings). 5. A label drafted shortly after the 1968 redecoration (see below) notes that 'the woodwork had been entirely re-gilded sometime in the last century, the original coating having been stripped beforehand.' It is unclear whether 'the last century' meant c. 1800-1900 or c. 1868-1968. 6. On loan to the V&A from Buckinghamshire County Council; formerly in the Langley Marish Church, near Slough. 'Falconet' must be either Pierre Falconet (b. 1683, active by 1738-c. 1750) or his son Louis (master 1743, d. 1775). An armchair of similar design, also stamped by Falconet, is published in: Pierre Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XIIIe Siècle. Dictionnaire des ébénistes et des menuisiers (Paris: Éditions de l'amateur, 2008), p. 346, b. 7. It seems unlikely that the chair was originally close-nailed. In the small area where the upholstery has been unpicked (see note 2), no holes from previous close-nailing can be seen (although such holes could possibly be concealed by later gesso and paint). 8. V&A Archive: VA 200/3 pt 2: 1966-1976 - Woodwork - Conservation of Art Objects. Geoffrey Rose's estimate 27 Septemeber 1968, included £47 10s. for 'Upholstering as instructed in your drawing. Covering in yellow silk, supplied by you' and £2 for braid. Thornton instructed Rose to procure the 'yellow shantung' from 'Messrs Primavera' (ibid., 24 July 1968). Thornton accepted Rose's estimate on 30 September, and the work was presumably carried out shortly afterwards. no drawing or written instructions survive in the V&A file. 9. As noted by Peter Thornton in the curatorial file, next to a photograph of the chair with the previous braid. 10. V&A Archive: VA 200/3 pt 2: 1966-1976 - Woodwork - Conservation of Art Objects: correspondence, 24 July 1968.