Accession Number

983.506.001

Description

An upholstered, wooden, rectangular backed parlour chair with French cabriole legs and cresting rail decorated in a floral pattern. Upholstered in blue Berlin wool work with a wreath of pink, blue, and gold flowers around a floral bouquet.

Narrative

Berlin wool work is a style of counted thread needlework, a technique where stitches are made at regular intervals across the support fabric. Worked in a cross-stitch or tent stitch across the entire support fabric, it creates a strong, durable material that is perfect for upholstery. This piece is completed in tent stitch.

Berlin wool work became extremely popular in the mid 19^th century. The pre-printed, easy to follow patterns were accessible to the growing middle class and the development of synthetic dyes allowed detailed shading to be used to depict realistic, almost three dimensional designs.

The details in the centre of the upholstery are done in petit point, a counted thread technique where stitches are made at regular intervals across the support fabric. Unlike other counted thread techniques, in petit point each stitch is made over a single thread of the canvas support. The resulting design is incredibly fine, detailed and realistic. Although most popular in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, petit point was often done in the 19^th century and was commonly used on the most detailed portions of a larger piece done in another technique.

 

History of Use

The history of the chair frame is unknown. It likely dates to about 1870. The needlework was done by the late Mrs. Herbert Davey in about 1955. She was a noted Victoria needle-worker during the mid 20th Century.

Mrs. Davey and her husband, Chief Justice Herbert W. Davey of the BC Court of Appeal, used this chair and its mate at their Victoria house. 

Date

circa 1870

Dimensions

215.9 x 134.62 x 116.84 cm

Material

Wood; Fabric, wool

Technique

Stitched; Carved; Upholstered; Bent