Ottoman stools!

Hi everyone!

I have a pair of ottoman stools that I inherited from my Grandparents. My Grandparents lived in Scarborough, England. I don't know a great deal about them other than they came from Lord Rothchilds yacht.

My Dad has always said they are Queen Ann stools. However we have just had the wood work professionally restored and the person who did them thinks they maybe French.

The dimensions are 68cm long, 48 depth, 35 height.

The cushions are made of horsehair, non of the fabric on them at the moment is the original.

I would love to know more about the stools, and I want to get them reupholstered but I'm not sure what fabric or pattern to use.

Any information about them would be wonderful.

 

I think they are Edwardian. If the Rothchild story holds water, they were probably commissioned for the furnishing of the said yacht (find out what one and when).
If you're planning on resting your feet on them, something like leather or velvet will be better than silk, but for a really striking effect, you can always check what's not too hot at Liberty (you don't need much)

 

Hi, and thank you for replying!

Edwardian? That's interesting. I've had a Google and can see some similar looking ones that are also edwardian.

I have no idea how to find out which yacht it was or how my family came to buy furniture from it!

Thank you for the advice for fabric, I think velvet might be a nice option.

 

I'd start by writing Rothschild correctly.
then you only need which branch of the family it came from - probably the English one.

https://www.rothschildarchive.org/family/family_interests/yachting

 

Excellent link, Fid. According to this, it could have been Lionel's Rhodora (I or II) . No connection with Scarborough, though.
According to this site https://www.le2fp.co.uk/rhodora-ii-home Rhodora II was requisitioned for the war effort and sank in 1940. This other site has some more details of the ship
https://hec.lrfoundation.org.uk/archive-library/ships/rhodora-1929 .
One could wonder whether its furnishings had not been disposed of when requisitioned.
As to the other British Rothschilds, any and all of them might have had boats. Lots of ground (or water in this case) to cover yet.

Edit:
On a separate note, accoriding to this article in the NYT, "Lionel de Rothschild, whom Brown names "the chief rhododendronophile" of the 20th century. At Exbury, the Hampshire estate where he moved in 1922, Rothschild, a playboy who endearingly named his yachts Rhodora 1 and 2, employed 60 gardeners and 15 greenhousemen." So if looking for a particular design, well, how's rhododendrons?