Sedan chair owned by Queen Charlotte, consort of George III. Oak, morocco leather, gilt metal, glass, silk, circa 1762-3.
The Queen's chair-maker was Samuel Vaughan of Coventry Street, Piccadilly. He and the chaser and gilder D.N. Anderson were paid by the queen's treasurer on the first of January 1763 "for decorating & Ornamentg a Sedan Chair", likely the one featured here. The author of its decorative scheme is unknown, but it may possibly have been the work of James "Athenian" Stuart, who also designed a new throne for Queen Charlotte which was installed at St James’s Palace. The sedan chair, covered in red morocco and extravagantly decorated with gilt metal - of extreme thinness, for lightness of weight - employs a wide range of ornament: the British lion and unicorn emerging from acanthus scrolls; swags of roses; laurel wreaths; oak and laurel sprays; the infant Mercury aboard a sailing boat; all framed by palm branches. The symbols of Victory used - similar in several respects to that used in the decoration of the Gold State Coach - would certainly seem appropriate in 1763, as Britain was just emerging ever more powerful at the conclusion of the Seven Years’ War.
Queen Charlotte employed four chairmen at an annual salary of £39 17s 6d, a figure which remained constant from the 1770s until her death in 1818.
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Images courtesy of the Royal Collection. Description loosely adapted from the collection's catalogue entry.
stunning!
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