A 17th Century Charles II Period English Antique Carved Oak Joint Stool, Carved to All Four Sides, English, circa 1660–1690

A good and honest joint stool of the Restoration period. It is carved to all four sides of the frieze, which is less common than you might expect: a great many stools of the period were carved to the front and back only, with plain ends. The long rails carry a running band of interlaced S-scrolls, each terminating in a tight volute and sprouting stiff, gouge-cut leaves. The end rails each carry a single bold S-scroll of the same vocabulary. The carving is executed with the confident economy of the provincial joiner. It is laid out with compass and gouge, cut shallow and crisp, and intended to be read across a room by firelight rather than examined at the elbow.

The thumb-moulded top overhangs generously and is pegged down to the frame in the traditional manner. A scribed border line inside the moulding gives it a quietly framed appearance. Beneath it the frieze rails are tenoned and pegged into four square-sectioned blocks. These run into elongated column-and-ring turnings with crisp collars above and below, and the legs rake gently outward on the end elevations for stability. Square lower blocks receive four plain peripheral stretchers, the front one worn smooth by three centuries of heels. The legs then terminate in turned ball feet. These are so often lost to damp flagstone floors or cut away in later levelling, and their survival here adds materially to the stool’s proportions and appeal.

The “joyned stool” appears in inventories of every rank of household throughout the seventeenth century. It was the ordinary seat at board, drawn up to the long table in the hall or parlour, while chairs were reserved for the master and honoured guests. Few pieces of early furniture are so instantly companionable today. At a generous twenty-three and a half inches high, this example sits beautifully beside an armchair or settle as an occasional or lamp table. It also stands at a bedside or serves as a plinth for a single fine object, and it remains entirely serviceable as a seat. The surface is a deep, dry, oxidised patina of considerable character, and the top is worn and polished by long use.

Provenance: England. 17th-century. 

Material: Oak, of pegged mortise-and-tenon construction.

Condition: Sound and solid, with an attractive dark patina. The top shows a shrinkage split along one long edge, a number of knots and old surface losses, peg holes to the corners, and general wear commensurate with age and use. There is old, apparently inactive, worm, most visible to the inner faces of the leg blocks. A small let-in repair is visible to the upper ring turning of one leg, and there is old chipping to the corresponding ring of another. Pale knocks show on the outer face of one front leg and on the inner face of one upper leg block. A small square let-in repair is visible to the underside of one foot. Wear to the stretchers is consistent with long use. An entirely honest example, offered without apology.

Dimensions: 23½ in high x 18 in wide x 10¼ in deep (60 cm x 46 cm x 26 cm)