£**,000.00

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A prototype 'Chair No. 229', circa 1880

Designed By Dr Christopher Dresser (1834-1904)

Made by Thomas Knight, Bath (dates unknown)

for the Art Furnishers' Alliance (1880-83)

Provenance: British private collection until summer 2020 

Cuban mahogany with later upholstery

76cm high at back

42cm high at seat

40cm wide

42.5cm deep

Amongst the designs in the Thomas Knight archive, held at the Victoria & Albert Museum, is a single page containing sixteen designs of chairs numbering from 217 to 232. The index states that the page shows 'Dr Dresser's designs'. This chair can be identified as No. 229 (see below).

Of those sixteen designs, examples of ten had been identified before the discovery of our chair. Nine of those are represented by just a single example and there are at least four known examples of no. 218 (see endnote for details).

We believe that Thomas Knight made one example of each of the sixteen designs as prototypes to stock in the Art Furnishers' Alliance’s showroom at 157 New Bond Street London. Pieces were then made to order. This theory can be strengthened when the construction method and detailed measurements are examined further; please contact us for details.

A design for a decorated version of this model appeared in the Furniture Gazette on 2nd October 1880, the year that Dr Dresser was guest editor of the magazine. The 'occasional chair' is described as being '... light and elegant and should be useful'. See a front and side view below.

Among a group of black and white photographs within the 'Chubb archive' held at the London Metropolitan Archives London, is a photograph of a decorated version. 

Following the Art Furnishers' Alliance's bankruptcy in early 1883, Chubb as a major shareholder instructed the auctioneers Thurgood & Martin to sell the remaining stock. Accordingly, they held a sale on the 24th August 1883. Lot 145 was a 'Dark mahogany octagon back chair, stuffed and covered in crimson silk (Dr. Dresser's design)'. It is unclear if the chair described is our prototype or the decorated version shown in the black and white photographs held in the Chubb Archive.