Seat | Collections Online - Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

item details

Name Seat

ProductionUnknown; furniture maker; circa 1810; England

Classificationseating furniture

Materialswood, silk, metal, thread, damask, brass, lacquer, gesso

Techniqueslacquering, upholstering

Registration NumberPF000052/1

Credit lineBequest of Mrs E.G. Elgar, 1946

Overview

A window seat in pseudo-Egyptian style, made in England about 1810, with slender curved black lacquer legs and brass ball feet. The legs are lacquered black over gesso, with enamelled decoration featuring pseudo - Chinese scenes and figures. It is upholstered with original green/gold silk and metal thread damask.

Elgar family
Mrs Ella Elgar purchased the cabinet while she was in England shopping to furnish her family's New Zealand mansion, 'Fernside'. The house had been built in the Wairarapa, a rural area of the lower North Island, in 1925, and was the product of the farming family's success selling wool during World War I, when prices were high. The Elgar's furnished their home with outstanding examples of English furniture from the late seventeenth century to the 1820s. Their plan was to live in their new Wairarapa house as 'wool kings'.