ALFRED WATERHOUSE (1830-1905) (ATTRIBUTED DESIGNER) FOR HENRY CAPEL’S ART FURNITURE, LONDON SPINDLE- oak, with later upholstery of the period

(46cm wide, 97.5cm high, 46cm deep)

Literature: V&A Collection accession no. 29637:138 Note: An advertisement card for Henry Capel’s Art Furniture of around 1875 illustrates a similar chair to the present lot. Henry Capel was one of several furniture manufacturers who specialised in 'art furniture'. The advertisement shows some of the characteristic examples of this style of furnishing: lighter spindle-turned furniture, the use of painted panels and tiles particularly with figurative designs, and reformist Gothic designs. Capel worked particularly closely with Alfred Waterhouse, producing furniture and fittings for over 30 of Waterhouse's buildings. Waterhouse probably drew the designs for these projects, which reflect his interest in Gothic and medieval architecture. Capel is recorded as working throughout the 1870s and exhibited at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878.