Letter

The letter from Thomas Chippendale junior is a reply to an unknown client concerning the design of an armchair to match a set of existing chairs. The mention of the ‘Goloss' (guilloche) under the arms suggests the chair would have been similar to those made for Stourhead in 1814, with ‘fluted Goloss all round inside and out' (illus. Goodison (2017), figs 127 & 128). Indeed, it is not impossible that these were the very chairs being discussed, since Chippendale had in 1812 supplied a set of ten chairs without arms to which the armchairs were added, as the letter implies. If so, the addressee was Sir Richard Colt Hoare, one of Chippendale junior's most important clients. The full text of the letter runs as follows: 'Sir, I have herewith sent a perspective view of the Arm Chair according to what I understand by your Sketches, with a Cushion on the seat & back, the scrowl for the elbows I suppose you meant it to lay horizontally, the other parts of course must match the Chairs, and the Goloss part that supports the Elbows should be Gilt inside and out, and the back of the Chair carvd & Gilt exactly like the fronts of the other Chairs, and as the panel is of wood in them, I rather think it would look better in these than Cane, if the scrowl for the Elbow was to turn down as in the side sketch perhaps it would look best, the Sketch is made to a scale exactly in the proportion of the Chairs, and as the ornaments will fall in, The width of the Chair I suppose 23 or 24 Inches and deep in proportion there will be no pannell wanted for the sides for when space is allowed for the thickness of the Cushion it will be just right for the Goloss to be continued without the pannell. Should you wish for any alteration and will please to point it out and I will make another sketch. Your most h[um]ble Servt Thos Chippendale. 4 Novr 1813 No 57 Haymarket By the base conduct of Lord Salisbury's Steward I have lost my premises in St Martins Lane and am for the present in the Haymarket'. The reference to Lord Salisbury alludes to Chippendale's difficulties with his landlord, the Marquess of Salisbury. When the lease on the St Martin's Lane premises came up for renewal in May 1813 Chippendale was unable or unwilling to agree to new terms and so was obliged to quit. He moved to 57 Haymarket, where he stayed for almost five years.

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