Beschreibung:

satinwood, ebonised and inlaid with various exotic timbers to the front and rear, each bears a printed maker's label with job numbers 99124 and 99* (label incomplete) (2) 41cm wide, 86cm high, 39cn deep Provenance: Baildon Lodge 1865-73 Milner Field until 1903 (now demolished) Denton Hall, near Ilkley until 1911 The Old Rectory at Thorp Arch near Boston Spa Unknown address in Harrogate until 1930 Rotterdam antique trade, The Netherlands 2021 Paul Shutler Literature: Gilbert C. Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, Volume II, 1978. Boynton L.O.J. High Victorian Furniture: The Example of Marsh and Jones of Leeds Furniture History Society, Journal III, 1967 where a transcribed copy of the Titus Salt order dated 8th August 1866 is seen in Appendix II (the rooms described are those at Baildon Lodge and not Milner Field.) Note: Titus Salt Jr, the youngest son of Sir Titus Salt, married Catherine Crossley in 1866 and immediately moved into the newly vacant Baildon Lodge just outside Bradford, Leeds. While living at Baildon Lodge, the newlywed homemakers commissioned the local firm Marsh & Jones to supply a large number of furnishings from a grand piano to basic toilet wares between 1865-67. Marsh & Jones employed the designer Charles Bevan to provide the Salts with the most modern designs in the reformed gothic style. Along with Bruce Talbert exhibiting a handful of 'medieval' or 'old English' pieces (including the Pericles cabinet) on the Holland & Son stand at the 1867 Paris Exhibition, it is widely accepted Bevan's designs for the Salts marked a turning point in British taste. Between 1871 and 1873 the Salts moved to their partially built country house, Milner Field, with building work continuing around them they took the contents of Baildon Lodge with them. The architect used was Thomas Harris (c.1930-1900), a little-known architect from London. The house too was built in the reformed gothic style with ornamental metalwork by Messrs Richardson, Slade & Co., furniture and panelling by Messrs Marsh & Jones, Stained glass by Messrs Saunders & Co. and cartoons and frescos painted by Frederick Weekes. The final two artists are best known for their collaborations with William Burges. Catherine Salt was an avid musician and gifted singer and regularly sang at the many soirees the couple hosted. The music room suite that included these chairs would have been of great importance to her and so would no doubt have followed her when she left Milner Fields in 1903. Illustrations of the grand piano, duet stool and music cabinet from this commission were published in The Building News of 1st March 1867. Both the piano and the duet stool are in the collection of Lotherton Hall, Leeds. Our chairs feature a distinctive A-frame to their backs which can be seen on the en-suite music cabinet and the sheet music stand on the piano. The duet stool (at Lotherton Hall) retains its original paper label from the makers, this label is hand inscribed with job number 99127. By studying the pieces with direct Salt provenance in the Lotherton Hall collection, we can see the range of job numbers the commission took up. ranging from 99092 (a chamber pot of pedestal form) to 99152 (a reclining chair).