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Casbert, John (1660-1677)

Casbert, John

The Great Wardrobe, Carter Lane, London; upholsterer (fl. 1660–1677)

Casbert supplied furnishings for royal palaces during the reign of Charles II on an extensive scale. These included upholstered chairs, some chairs of estate with the associated stools and cushions, bedsteads, canopies of state, hangings and curtaining. Much of the material used was of fine quality and included Turkey work, crimson velvet and scarlet satin. Gold and silver fringe is frequently mentioned. 

Typical of the type of furniture supplied is an entry in the Lord Chamberlain's accounts for May 1674 for ‘a French chaire Hollow in ye back and quilted with two Stooles suitable of crimson Damaske with border and bayes and silke Fringe and cases of Serge’ for which £1 was charged. One ‘rich bed of Crimson Velvett’ supplied to Hampton Court was charged at £30. 

In an article entitled 'Archbishop Juxton's Chair', published in The Burlington Magazine (May, 1999), James Yorke linked two state chairs at Knole with an order to Casbert for four red velvet state chairs. The inscriptions and date on the Knole chairs reads 'HC 1661', tallying with the date of the Hampton Court order to Casbert for the other chairs. In 'Seventeenth-Century Furniture at Knole', Furniture History (2023), Christopher Rowell explained that this attribution led to some confusion; beneath the seats of these two X-frame chairs of state at Knole, are black stamps on the upholstery cover beneath a crown marked "H[AMPTON] C[OURT] 1661. Rowell believes this is probably the date of a palace inventory rather than the date of manufacture and therefore the attribution to Casbert must be incorrect because the two slightly different chairs at Knole, which are mainly red - but neither velvet-covered nor a pair - actually correspond to the description of the state chairs acquired at Hampton Court, by the 6th Earl of Dorset as Lord Chamberlain, in 1663 [Rowell, Furniture History (2023), p. 63, fn 107 and illus. pp. 31, 64, 67]. 

Casbert supplied the Palace of Whitehall, Hampton Court, Windsor Castle and Somerset House. One such object is an X-frame chair and a footstool, made for the use of William Juxon, the Archbishop of Canterbury (1582-1663), at the coronation of Charles II. The provenance is confirmed in 'an undated bill in his 1660-61 accounts, for "worke and provisions made by him p[er]formed for his Mat'ies servis at his Coronation"'. Also in these accounts an entry '"ffor making a rich purple velvt Chaire of State for the Bishop with a foot stoole and seat cusshon suitable fringed with gold fringes and double gilt nales with cases of Bayes. £04:00:00"' [TNA LC2/8].

The chair and footstool are now on display in the British Galleries, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (illustrated below):

Image
Casbert X-frame chair & stool
Copyright (Attribution/Credit)
V&A
The so-called 'Juxon Chair'. A chair of state made of beechwood, covered with purple velvet and trimmed with silver and gold fringe. Chair made by Casbert and fringe by Ralph Silverton, 1661 [W.12:1, 2-1928]. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Purchased with Art Fund support.
Image
Casbert X-frame chair back
Copyright (Attribution/Credit)
V&A
Back of the 'Juxon Chair' 1661 [W.12:1, 2-1928]. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Purchased with Art Fund support.

He also appears to have been responsible for the fitting up the the royal yachts Monmouth, Cleveland and Henrietta and in September 1668 made a charge of £13 ‘for going and coming by water to the Monmouth Yacht fowre severall tymes, and carriage of Goodes’

Sources: Connoisseur (Sep-Dec, 1915), vol. 43, pp. 15, 19, 86, 89; Country Life (8 April 1954), p. 1028 and (9 June 1977), p. 1620; DEFM; Rowell, C., 'Seventeenth Century Furniture At Knole', Furniture History (2023), pp. 31-114; The National Archives (TNA) LC5/39–40, LC9/271–75; Westman, A., Fringe Frog & Tassel: The Art of the Trimmings-Maker in Interior Decoration (London, 2019), pp. 49-50; Yorke, James, The Burlington Magazine (May, 1999), pp. 282-86. 

The original entry from Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840 can be found at British History Online.