Published by The Regional Furniture Society 2014  

William Burges ‘Sea Monster’ Chairs on Loan to National Trust

by Paul Shutler

Much of William Burges’s furniture is based on medieval French designs, some existing pieces in particular, directly follow the designs published in the  Dictionnaire Raisonné du Mobilier Françias de L’époque Carlovingienne à la renaissance(published between 1858-1870) by the 19th century French architect Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879).

However, this pair of rush-seated chairs, of which a few examples survive, seem to be French chairs decorated by himself in England. These chairs are shaped using a drawknife, leaving an imperfect surface covered with facets. They are also somewhat crudely made from pine. Both features indicate French rather than English construction. Interestingly many of the examples known today retain a rush seat under later upholstery (presumably an afterthought) this can be seen in the contemporary photographs; this pair retain the original rush seat and display evidence of crude upholstery having been removed. 

From 1875-1881, Burges worked on his own home, called Tower House, on Melbury Road, Kensington. The ‘Mermaid Bedroom’ in Tower House was so called because of the carved stone chimneybreast that featured a mermaid gazing at her reflection in a hand mirror. 

The Mermaid and Triton (or the Sea Monsters) were a favoured decorative device of William Burges’, he not only used them for both his earlier Buckingham Street bedroom and his Tower House bedroom but also intended it to be used at Knightshayes Court. He was commissioned to build Knightshayes Court, the Devon family home for Sir John Heathcoat Amory, owner of the Heathcoat lace making works in Tiverton. Construction started in 1869 and by 1874 the house was structurally complete. 

Along with the building itself Burges designed the complete interior scheme for the house. This scheme included the chimneypiece in the Boudoir, designed with a Mermaid supporting a shelf, identical to the chimneypiece in the Mermaid Bedroom at Tower House. Sadly however, by 1874 William Burges and Heathcoat Amory were at odds, and none of this scheme was realized. As a result of this Knightshayes was, by 1883, decorated by the more conventional decorator John Dibblee Crace in a more diluted gothic style. This also means the house today has no Burges designed furniture of it’s own. The now called ‘Burges room’ at Knightshayes has been restored according to the original Burges’ scheme. Most of the room has been furnished using Burges designed pieces on loan from the V&A’s collection. As of 2014 this pair have been loaned to the National Trust to complete the Burges room.