MINIATURE FURNITURE - A carved walnut armchair

possibly late 17th/early 18th century in the Charles II style

Footnotes

The offered lot has featured twice on the renowned BBC television program, "Antiques Roadshow". The present chair was first inspected on 15 June 1994 and then also subsequently appeared for a second time on 9 July 2019. Copies of this "Antiques Roadshow" paperwork are available for inspection upon request.

Although chairs of this scale have often been cited erroneously as 'apprentice pieces', the existence of two beech armchairs of this scale in The V&A Museum collection, with their accompanying late 18th century wooden dolls, makes the case for these 'miniature chairs' being intended for use as 'toys' all the more likely. The V&A examples (T.846Y-1974 and T.846V-1974) which accompany the celebrated Lord and Lady Clapham dolls (circa 1690-1700) follow the pattern of full sized chairs of the period. The chairs would almost certainly have been made by a professional chair maker and the construction techniques mirror those found on full sized examples from the period. The scarcity of surviving late 17th century dolls, although many were produced, may well reflect the few surviving miniature chairs. Other surviving period miniature chairs, including one of the 'Clapham' chairs are in poor condition implying the likelihood of them having been played with and hence the few surviving examples.

The Lord and Lady Clapham dolls are thought to have belonged to the Cockerell family who were descendants of Samuel Pepys. Pepys' nephew John Jackson married a Cockerell and the dolls were named 'Lord' and 'Lady' of the family home in Clapham. The remarkable condition of the Clapham dolls suggests that in this instance they may have been admired by adults rather than being played with by children and were viewed more as decoration for the home.