Occasional chair
Dining chair
Maker & role
John Sander (active 1982), Maker
Production date
1983
Object detail
Production place
Collection
Measurements
0 - Whole, H: 81 x W: 50 x D: 47.5cm (H: 810 x W: 500 x D: 475mm)
Credit line
Purchase, 1984
Elizabeth Farm Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Elizabeth Farm Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Description
Representing the style and quality of furniture familiar to the Macarthur family during the early decades of the nineteenth century, this chair was reproduced for museum use at Elizabeth Farm in 1983. Of the hundreds of people who lived and worked at Elizabeth Farm before 1850, few were lucky enough to sit on a chair like this.
Besides being sat upon, a chair like this had other functions. For the Macarthurs an expensive chair like this served to reinforce the family’s vision of itself and its place in the world, expressed in design, taste and quality. Household staff saw it differently. Critical for them was the chair’s covering, sturdiness, position, repair and appearance. One more object, amongst hundreds of expensive and utilitarian household items, governed within a complicated world of rules, routines, chores and instructions. Built from mahogany and applied veneers, finished in French polish, shined up with beeswax, its joints fixed with rabbit skin glue, upholstered in horse-hair edged with woven gimp braids, this utilitarian and commonly used item required endless hours attention and care.
Besides being sat upon, a chair like this had other functions. For the Macarthurs an expensive chair like this served to reinforce the family’s vision of itself and its place in the world, expressed in design, taste and quality. Household staff saw it differently. Critical for them was the chair’s covering, sturdiness, position, repair and appearance. One more object, amongst hundreds of expensive and utilitarian household items, governed within a complicated world of rules, routines, chores and instructions. Built from mahogany and applied veneers, finished in French polish, shined up with beeswax, its joints fixed with rabbit skin glue, upholstered in horse-hair edged with woven gimp braids, this utilitarian and commonly used item required endless hours attention and care.
Accession number
EF87/1-22
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