A SET OF SIX GEORGE III MAHOGANY AND UPHOLSTERED SIDE CHAIRSCIRCA 1780Each oval padded back and serpentine seat worked in 18th century silk needlework by Mrs Jennens, applied to a chocolate brown silk ground on fluted tapering legs95cm high, 57cm wideProvenance:Worked by Susanna Jennens (1688-1760).Literature:Sir George Sitwell, A brief history of Weston Hall, Northamptonshire, and of the families that possessed it, London, privately printed 1927, pp. 12, 23-25.F. Bamford, 'Weston Hall, Northamptonshire - I: The Home of Sir Sacheverell and Lady Sitwell', Country Life, 22 January 1976, p. 175, fig. 3; p. 177, figs. 6, 7.Catalogue Note:The crewel-work embroidery hangings of the four-poster bed, and silk needlework upholstery of the six mahogany chairs offered here (lots 235 and 238) were wrought by Susanna Jennens (1688-1760), probably in the 1730s-40s, for her bedchamber at Weston Hall, Northamptonshire (formerly known as Weston House; F. Bamford, 'Weston Hall, Northamptonshire - I: The Home of Sir Sacheverell and Lady Sitwell', Country Life, 22 January 1976, p. 175, fig. 3; p. 177, figs. 6, 7). Susanna was the daughter of a distinguished judge, Sir John Blencowe (d. 1726) of Marston St Lawrence and the widow of Richard Jennens of Princethorp in Warwickshire. On 31 August 1714, she leased Weston Hall for seven years for herself and her three young children at a rent of £14 per annum from Thomas Hiccocks, who was on the verge of bankruptcy. The move was evidently successful; in January 1721-22, prior to the expiration of the lease, Susanna's father, Sir John Blencowe, purchased the freehold of Weston for £990 and presented it to his daughter as a Valentine the following month, and in 1731, Susanna described the hall as 'dear Weston' (Sir George Sitwell, A brief history of Weston Hall, Northamptonshire, and of the families that possessed it, London, privately printed 1927, p. 17). Susanna's bedchamber was on the first floor of Weston Hall. Described as 'a sunny room with two windows overlooking the flower- and fruit-gardens', it was later known as the 'Worked room' as this was where the present bed and hangings and chairs were originally placed, together with window curtains, a tapestry table-top with glass cover, a settee and a carpet, all worked by Susanna (ibid., pp. 12, 24). The decoration of trails and festoons of flowers of the hangings, which includes roses, lilies, hollyhocks, carnations, tulips, jasmine and honeysuckle possibly inspired by those found in the garden at Weston (ibid.). Crewel-work embroidery, named after the crewel or worsted wool used, was revived in the late 17th century by Queen Mary II (d. 1694), and remained fashionable in the first half of the 18th century (ibid., p. 23). Celia Fiennes, who travelled throughout England in this period, noted in the Queen's Closet at Windsor that 'the hangings, Chaires, Stooles, and Screen the same, all of Satten stitch done in worsteads, beasts, birds, ymages, and fruites, all wrought very ffinely by Queen Mary and her Maids of Honour' (M. Jourdain, 'Crewel-work hangings and bed furniture', The Burlington, September 1909, p. 367). The universal devotion to needlework was such that educated women like Susanna spent many hours at this endeavor. Bed hangings were usually the most important part of the bed, generally referred to as the 'furniture', and were considered more valuable than the wooden bed frames they decorated. There is some evidence that bed hangings were sold much as embroidery kits are today, with the design already drawn on the fabric and the worsted yarns purchased separately (A. Pollard Rowe, 'Crewel Embroidered Bed Hangings in Old and New England', Boston Museum Bulletin, vol. 71, 1973, p. 106). However, a letter, undated but possibly July 1731, to Mary Jennens (d. 1788), Susanna's elder daughter, from Mary Prescott, Susanna's sister, shows that the design of the hangings offered here, and probably the upholstery on the chairs, was a collaborative effort between the three women: 'I have begun a pattern for the curtains of the bed, and have made some alteration in your pattern of the valens, which will do very well, and may be added to her work when she sees it, as I have altered your work, if she likes it' (ibid., pp. 24-25).An Inventory of Goods belonging to the late Richard Jennens, Esquire, at Weston records the embroidered bedroom furniture in the 'Best Bedchamber' - suggesting that it was moved after Susanna's death from the 'Worked room' (ibid., p. 38). The inventory values the bedstead and hangings embroidered by Susanna at £5, the coverlet or quilt at £1, the pair of window curtains £1 5s and two carpets at £1, and as noted by Sir George Sitwell in his A brief history of Weston Hall their value was very high when compared to the furniture of other rooms (ibid.).A set of four embroidered panels forming parts of either a cover or hangings worked in crewel wool with flowers, including carnations, lilies, daffodils, roses and tulips is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (131 to C-1889) - as is an embroidered curtain made as part of a full set of bed hangings in the early 18th century reputedly from Wattisfield Hall, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (353 to I-1907).