A rare Henry VIII joined oak triple panel-back open armchair, circa 1540


The back with a narrow horizontal rail finely carved with three shields, two with the initials 'I' and 'N', the third with a barrel, all set within pierced and carved fruiting vine, a pair of linenfold carved vertical panels below, the shaped arms on fish-scale carved front supports, the panelled seat above guilloche-carved front and side aprons, each with a shallow pointed-ogee arched profiled lower edge, the rear apron left plain except for a carved cross to the apex of the arch, on chamfered rectangular-section legs joined by plain stretchers all round, professional restorations, 61cm wide x 56cm deep x 119cm high, (24in wide x 22in deep x 46 1/2in high)
|Provenance:Sold Christie's, South Kensington, 1st March 2005, Lot 335Exhibited:The Merchant's House, Marlborough, Wiltshire, 2005-2018When sold by Christie's, it was noted that the College of Arms had identified the initials and barrel (or 'tun') symbol to this chair's toprail as a rebus, an element of sub-heraldry used by non-armigerous families, people not entitled to bear arms, to represent their name. Here they understood the I, the N and the 'tun' to stand for 'Ironton', an unusual name, and noted that there were Irontons in Buckinghamshire in the 17th century. The name was also prevalent in Warwickshire and Lancashire. A related chair with arm supports embellished with carving, and carved aprons beneath the seat rails, bearing the arms of Sir Rhys ap Thomas of Dynefwr, Carmarthenshire, is illustrated V. Chinnery, Oak Furniture: The British Tradition (2002), p. 245, Figure 3:28.