Armchair with the cipher of James II and Mary of Modena

This armchair is the finest example of its type and period in the Museum. In the center of the crest atop its back is a cipher with the initials of King James II of England (1633-1701) and of his consort, Mary Beatrice, a princess of the house of Este (1658-1718), held by a lion and a unicorn, the royal supporters of England and Scotland. The shell, a device of King James's, and the eagle, an attribute of his consort, also appear prominently: shells are carved at the center of the blocks on top of the front legs and on top of the stiles flanking the crest; the latter support eagles' heads, which appear again, together with their wings, as feet for the front legs. Each front leg is in the form of a young blackamoor holding garlands and supporting a cushion, probably referring to the supporters of the Royal African Company, a trading company to Africa, to whom the chair might have belonged. It would probably have been used only on ceremonial occasions by the chairman of the company.

The chair has experienced some changes throughout its history. The back was originally upholstered and the seat caned. When acquired in 1918, it had casters, and there was evidence that it had originally been painted black and gilded. Today no such evidence remains. Chairs of this type usually have an elaborately carved and pierced front stretcher, for which the present turned stretcher must be a replacement.

This armchair came to the Museum together with twenty-three other pieces of English furniture from the collection of George S. Palmer, a serious collector, though little known today. It has been published several times, most soberly by Joseph Breck in 1918 [1] and most passionately in 1983 by Humphry Wakefield: "The sense of live movement in this carving is as powerful and emotionally satisfying as that any tree or human form could provide. The snarling lion masks at the arms, with their wild manes, menace anyone who approaches the personage they guard." [2]

Footnotes

1. Breck 1918, pp. 274, 277, fig. 2

2. Wakefield 1983, p. 116