How the Armchair Arrived at the Museum

Armchair as it came into the museum	When this armchair was given to the CMA in 1989 it looked very different than it would have when constructed in the 18th century. The chair had lost all of its gilding and had none of the original upholstery. Over the years the gilding on the chair may have became worn and flaked off. There was a fashion from about 1900 to 1940 to strip the gilding and gesso (a mixture of chalk and rabbit skin glue) from rococo chairs and this may have happened.
Detail of nail holes in wood frame	That the chair had originally been gilded was suggested by traces of gesso that remained in the depths of the carved relief. The extensive number of nail holes found at the edge of the upholstered areas indicates that the chair had been reupholstered a number of times since the 18th century. The museum rarely undertakes wholesale restoration of an object, but the appearance of this chair was so compromised from its original artistic and cultural intent that the curator and conservators decided drastic measures were required.

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