Lot 122
Manner of Sir Basil Spence O.M. O.B.E. R.A. (British 1907-1976)
Armchair
MODERN MADE: Modern & Post-War Art, Design & Studio Ceramics | 695
Auction: 28 October 2022 at 11:00 BST
Description
teak and painted metal
Dimensions
94cm high, 61cm wide, 63cm deep (37in high, 24in wide, 24 3/4in deep)
Provenance
Provenance:
By repute from Exeter Cathedral.
Footnote
By repute this chair originally came from Exeter Cathedral, and historic photographs of the interior show a similar chair in the church. Sir Basil Spence is not recorded as having designed work for the cathedral, however he was working on the University of Exeter in the late 1950s and early 1960s and it has been suggested that it might have been possible that furniture could have found its way from university to cathedral or he could have run something up for the cathedral while he was looking at the University projects.
The seat bears comparison to other furniture at a Spence, Glover and Ferguson project at St Aiden’s Church in Leicester, whom the Bishop of Leicester had asked Spence to design in 1955, in its use of materials and some of the stylings of the furniture.
Literature:
Knight, Marcus, Exeter Cathedral, Pitkin Pictorials, London, 1976 (for similar example of this model).