Art Institute of Chicago

Chair

Designed by Lewis Nockalls Cottingham (English, 1787–1847)

Date

1844

Medium

Oak and beechwood with later velvet upholstery

Culture

London

Department

Applied Arts of Europe

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

This chair, once part of a set of twenty, was intended for dining in the gothic revival estate of Brougham Hall. Its form epitomizes the design tensions of nineteenth-century England, mixing medieval gothic-style pierced tracery or window ornament with the form of a modern chair. Such a chair had no precedent in the middle ages, though its robust proportions and ornament, designed by an architect rather than furniture maker, enhanced the ambiance of the so-called Armour Hall for which it was made. Surrounded by walls hung with armor and weapons delicately lit by candles in iron sconces, there is no wonder that dinner guests who sat in these chairs in the 1840s were besot by the gothic mood. Lampooned by some and celebrated by others, Brougham Hall was a “modern antique.” Ironically, despite their medieval overtones, these chairs commissioned for the hall were among the very first pieces of furniture to be machine-carved with the modern advantage of a steam-powered engine.

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