“Four designs of French chairs with Elbows and for the greater Variety, the Feet and Elbows are different. The little moulding, round the Bottom of the Edge of the Rails, has a good Effect.” The Backs and Seats are stuffed, and covered with Spanish leather or Damask, etc., and nailed with Brass Nails. The seat is 27 Inches wide in front, 22 Inches from the Front to the Back and 23 Inches wide behind; the Height of the Back is 25 Inches, and the Height of the Seat 14½ including Casters.
The “French chair” is the fauteuil, and the designs of the covers as represented in his third edition show design, in the “Chinese taste,” flowers, birds, pagodas, balustrades, mandarins and jars, or designs from Æsop. For example, one dated 1759, shows the dog crossing the brook with a bone in his mouth.
Of “Six Designs of Chairs for Halls, Passages, or Summer Houses,” he says: “They may be made either of Mahogany or any other Wood, and painted, and have commonly wooden Seats. The Height of the Gothic Back is two Feet, four Inches, and the others one Foot, eleven Inches, and the Height of the Seat seventeen or eighteen Inches. If you divide the Height of the Backs in the Number of Inches given, you will have a Measure to take off the Breadth of the circular Parts of each Back. Arms, if required, may be put to these chairs.”
Again, he gives “two designs of Chairs for Gardens and a long Seat.” One, considered “proper for Arbours,” has a branch for a leg, garden tools crossed form the back, which is surrounded by blades of grass bent in an oval form. The seat, which “may be placed in Walks or at the Ends of Avenues,” is 7 feet and has in the centre a leaf or shell. The second chair, “proper for grottoes,” is composed of two shells, one forming the back, the other the seat, the legs are dolphins standing on their tails, the cabriole leg formed by the arch of the dolphin’s neck.
Four plates give “a variety of new pattern chairs, which, if executed according to their designs, and by a skillful workman, will have a very good effect. The fore feet are all different for your better choice. If you think they are too much ornamented they can be omitted at pleasure. The proper dimensions of those chairs are 1 foot, 10 inches in the front; 1 foot, 5½ inches behind; and 1 foot 5 inches from the front of the back foot to the front rail; the back, 1 foot, 10½ inches high; the seat 1 foot, 5 inches high; but that is made lower according as the seat is to be stuffed.”
Two plates present “six new designs of Gothic Chairs; their feet are almost all different, and may be of use to those that are unacquainted with this sort of work. Most of the ornaments may be left out if required. The sizes are the same as in the preceding chairs, and may be lessened or enlarged, according to the fancy of the skillful artist.”
“Three Gothic chairs” “are suitable to a library and eating-parlours.”
“Nine Designs of Chairs after the Chinese Manner ... are very proper for a Lady’s Dressing-Room: especially if it is hung with India paper. They will likewise suit Chinese Temples. They have commonly Cane-Bottoms, with loose Cushions; but, if required, may have slipped Seats and Brass Nails.”
The backs and legs are of fret work. The seat is 19 inches deep, 17 inches long; the back, 20 inches high, and the legs from floor to seat, 17 inches, and those made of pierced fretwork are 2½ inches wide.
Three plates show “nine Chairs in the present Chinese manner, which I hope will improve that taste, or manner of work; it having yet never arrived to any perfection; doubtless it might be lost without seeing its beauty: as it admits of the greatest variety, I think it the most useful of any other. The sizes are all specified on the designs. The three last I hope will be well received, as there has been none like them yet made.”