17th Century Charles II Joined Oak Panel-Back Open Armchair, Lancashire or Cheshire, circa 1680

A handsome and characterful wainscot armchair of North-Western type, its square-section back uprights rising to crisp pyramidal finials. These finials are a motif closely associated with joiners and carvers working in Lancashire and Cheshire in the later seventeenth century.

The top rail is carved with a pair of flowerhead-filled lozenges flanking a central rosette roundel, all within shaped scroll spandrels above and below. Beneath, the back panel is boldly carved in relief. A central stylised lily springs from a stem whose foliate tendrils curl outward to form four roundels. The upper pair enclose tulips and the lower pair quatrefoil flowerheads, the whole set against punched and stippled grounds. This is a confident, rhythmic composition in the vernacular idiom of the period. A run-moulded rail completes the back, and the reverse is a plain bevelled panel.

The shaped, downswept arms end in scrolled hand-holds and rest on ring-turned supports. They flank a boarded seat above run-moulded seat rails. The chair stands on block-and-ring-turned columnar front legs and square rear legs, joined all round by plain peripheral stretchers. The construction is pegged mortise-and-tenon throughout.

Provenance: England. Late 17th Century.

Material: Oak; iron nail fixings to the seat.

Condition. Good and sound, with a rich, deep colour and well-developed patination. There is wear to the arm terminals and stretchers commensurate with three centuries of use. The seat board shows shrinkage splits and has been refixed, with later corner blocks beneath. Minor piecing is present on the left edge of the back panel. These are honest, period-appropriate repairs that do not detract from a chair of real presence.

Dimensions: Height 40½ in (103 cm); width across arms 23½ in (60 cm); depth 15 in (38 cm); seat height 17¼ in (44 cm).