The Lincolnshire Windsor chair: its comparison to those made in the Thames Valley and Nottinghamshire at a similar time, Roger Taylor’s initial design in Grantham and its development by subsequent workshops.

Nowhere in the literature on vernacular furniture is there a definition of a Lincolnshire Windsor armchair and Christopher Gilbert in his book on vernacular furniture states that the design is a complex affair. My experience however is rather different. It became quite obvious to me several years ago, that if I entered a saleroom or antique shop which contained Windsor chairs from different regions, then at a glance I was able to identify those made in Lincolnshire. In due course this led me to analyse my thought processes, which I had come to rely upon and trust. Over many years of collecting, handling and photographically recording these chairs, I had become quite familiar with the essential features which were contained in their design and the specific pointers which define a Lincolnshire Windsor chair. This article seeks to highlight those characteristics in order to help others identify these chairs and differentiate them from those made in other regions.

First, a labelled Lincolnshire chair to show the naming of the parts:

Some terms above are not those used by the makers, but have come into common use in furniture literature over the years. By some experts, the steam-bent parts are bows and never hoops, spindles have turned decoration, and stick is reserved for plain lengths usually made with a draw-knife ) but later turned on a lathe). The slightly cumbersome term underarm support is commonly used: these were once arm stumps or arm stands. 

Second, eight other chairs, labelled to show parts that do not happen to appear in the first chair:

 No 1. The primary feature that I focus on when encountering a Windsor chair for the first time is the joint that connects the back hoop to the arm bow (in a Windsor armchair) or where the back hoop joins the seat (in a side chair). If the hoop has been pared down from a square section to a rounded tenon and it has been morticed into a hole in the arm bow or seat, then this is a very good pointer to the chair having been made in Lincolnshire - a cabinet maker may well describe this as a tapered socket joint, bored through and wedged. I know of only two signed Lincolnshire chairs where this is not the case (out of hundreds that I have recorded). The alternative method of securing this joint is by reducing the square section of the back hoop to a smaller square section tenon, which leaves a shoulder to sit on top of the arm bow. In all cases, an inspection of the underside of this joint will reveal a thin wedge driven upwards and glued, in order to prevent the joint pulling out.

Lincolnshire tapered socket joint

Thames Valley square section & square tenon

 It must be pointed out that it is possible to find chairs from the Thames Valley region which use this Lincolnshire tapered tenon, with wedged through mortice technique, though they are uncommon. Conversely, nearly all the chairs signed by Nottinghamshire makers use the same method employed by their Lincolnshire neighbours. Finally there is a group of chairs which have a provenance to Leicestershire which show both methods of construction.

No 2. The second important feature involves a close inspection of the seat and the ability to identify the difference between ash and elm wood. Based on a survey of 28 signed Lincolnshire Windsor chairs, the use of ash wood in the making of the seat is 50%. No such survey has been carried out for Thames Valley chairs but in my experience the overwhelming majority use elm in their construction. It is never safe to be guided by the auctioneer’s lot notes or the advice of a furniture dealer as some cannot readily distinguish between the two woods, often labelling all Windsor chair seats as being made of elm. The need to identify ash wood is most important as many Lincolnshire Windsor armchairs and side chairs are made entirely out of ash wood. It is also useful to be able to recognise beech wood, as this is very common in Thames Valley chairs while being almost non-existent in early Lincolnshire chairs. This is explained by the fact that beech was one of the last trees to colonize the British Isles after the last Ice Age and had only established naturally in the south of the country by the mid 1700s. The SHIRLEY seat below is made of elm while the MARSH seat below is of ash. Note that in between the growth rings of the elm there are zig-zag lines which are not present on the ash seat. The direction of travel of the seat grain is of no importance.

Elm seat

Ash seat

No 3. A pleasing feature that often appears on the leading edge of the back bow is a molding made by a scratch stock which gives the appearance of an applied bead and is called an “edge bead“. This application often appears on chairs made in the Thames Valley region and the same chairs invariably have an incised scratch edge line on the upper surface of the seat, along all sides. Both of these features are extraordinarily rare in a Lincolnshire chair but common on Thames Valley seats, but can also be found occasionally on Nottinghamshire chairs. The pictures below show a close-up of a back-bow from a Thames Valley chair, illustrating the edge bead, along with a back section of the seat from the same chair showing the incised mark.

Edge bead

Incised line on seat

No 4. The early Windsor chair makers of Lincolnshire all made spindle back chairs. However chairs by the same maker can be found with a decorative splat to replace the middle two or three spindles. I pay very little attention to the design of the back splat: they appear to be generic and rarely specific to any one workshop. Notably, the method of incorporating it into the arm bow falls into two distinct practices. The Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire chair makers usually made the back splat in two pieces and these were morticed into a letterbox-shaped hole in the arm bow. This method is in sharp contrast to the makers from the Thames Valley who used an entirely different technique, namely to make a rebate into the leading face of the arm bow into which the splat was located and secured with dovetailed edges. This would necessitate the splat being made from one thin complete piece of timber along with its applied design. The rebate is made shallower than the thickness of the splat which results in it standing slightly proud. This is to ensure that the back bow is not weakened too much from the loss of thickness due to the rebate.

Simpson: two piece splat morticed into arm bow

Probable Prior: one piece splat fixed into rebate on arm bow

Back splats compared: top is a signed SIMPSON BOSTON. Bottom is an unsigned chair but attributed to the workshop of PRIOR UXBRIDGE. It has a one-piece splat, partly let into the face of the back bow and a roundel motif, both features associated with Thames Valley chairs.

No 5. Many of the manufacturing techniques and assembly methods of early Lincolnshire chairs were developed specifically to reduce the cost of production and these next two features clearly demonstrate this. The first is the lack of decoration on the two back legs, whereas the front legs would have a ring and cove motif; see the image of a TAYLOR stamped chair which is the picture after next below. It appears that all the Lincolnshire makers use this method on all but their best chairs, which were usually made out of yew wood and usually all four legs would be decorated. The second feature concerns the method used to secure the legs to the underside of the seat. While every one of the Lincolnshire chairs that I have recorded had their legs seated into a blind socket beneath the seat, the Thames Valley makers often used a different process, particularly before 1820, namely to drill the hole all the way through the seat and secure the leg, with a wedge, driven downwards and plainly visible, from the top surface of the seat.

No 6. Another feature worthy of note found on the chairs made by the slightly later Lincolnshire makers is the use of a two ring motif, applied to the front legs. For example, all recorded windsor armchairs stamped HUBBARD GRANTHAM have the ring and cove decoration on the front legs whereas the slightly later maker WOOD GRANTHAM had the two ring motif. The three ring design, so commonly found on the Thames Valley-made chairs, was used by the Lincolnshire makers at a much later date.

No 7. It is possible to find chairs which have two oblique spindle supporting the back bow, inclined at about 20 degrees to the vertical, to impart greater strength to the back support. This, in turn, means that a tongue of wood extends beyond the back edge of the seat, to allow these two spindles to be socketed in and secured. This is such a common feature on Thames Valley side chairs but I have only seen this practice once on a Lincolnshire counterpart and once on a Nottinghamshire chair.. Where this technique is used, then the grain of the seat has to run through the chair, never across.

The next picture shows the spindles supports at the back of an unsigned chair which displays many features associated with those manufactured in the Thames Valley. The tongue into which the two oblique spindles are socketed is clearly shown.

Oblique support spindles

No 8. Examples of Lincolnshire Windsors: the tradition of Windsor chair making in the south of Lincolnshire was started by Mr Roger Taylor in Grantham about 1800. His chair manufacturing business, which was expanded by his wife, Sophia, after his death in October 1801, produced chairs for approximately 10 years. While many chairs stamped TAYLOR GRANTHAM have been recorded, it appears that there is only one basic pattern of arm chair that was ever produced. The great majority of these have turned underarm supports and it seems likely that this workshop was the first in the country to use this method for the mass production of chairs. The reason is obvious: turned underarm supports were quicker and cheaper to produce than the traditional method of steam-bent crooked underarm supports. Subsequently, all the other chair makers in South Lincolnshire followed their example and used turned underarm supports to some extent ( there is, however, one exception to this rule: as yet, no chair stamped HUBBARD or I*HUBBARD has been found with turned underarm supports, every one recorded has a bent crook arm ). In reviewing the published literature relating to Thames Valley chairs it appears that they did not embrace this technique until many years afterwards, from 1840 onwards, and then with a different turning motif.

This chair is faintly stamped TAYLOR GRANTHAM and was produced in the workshop of Roger and Sophia Taylor (1800-1810). Everything about this design suggests that they were built to be as economical as possible with the components and assembly methods without compromising their structural integrity.

Taylor Grantham spindle back

This model set the standard which every subsequent chairmaker in the county followed, thus setting the trend that lasted for decades. Understanding the origins of the design of Lincolnshire chairs, and the market that they were built for, helps greatly in recognising unsigned chairs.

There is a distinct possibility that at least a dozen people were employed in the manufacture of chairs in their workshop and it is not surprising, that even after more than 200 years, it is not uncommon to find then offered for sale in antique shops or by auctioneers. There must have been a large demand for this type of utilitarian chair and perhaps there is a clue as to what drove this production, by understanding what was happening in England at the beginning of the 19th century. The country was in the middle of the war with France and Napoleon. Huge effort went into the recruiting, training, administration and supplying the armed forces. All this effort came to an end when the fighting ceased in 1815 and this led to a sale of the barracks along with their fixture and fittings in many parts of the country. One such sale was advertised in the Suffolk Chronicle during March 1815 at Woodbridge Barracks, everything was to be sold, including buildings, bricks, pantiles, framing and weather boarding, bedsteads, cooking boilers, urine tubs, sentry boxes and 700 Windsor chairs. This was replicated in many other towns and perhaps it was this demand, that was created by the furnishing of these barracks, that Roger and Sophia Taylor were catering for.

Typical spindle back early Lincolnshire Windsor armchair, signed MARSH SLEAFORD. Made by Thomas Marsh in his workshop at Sleaford, about 12 miles from the workshop of Roger Taylor in Grantham.

Marsh Sleaford spindle back

Thomas must have known Roger and Sophia Taylor as he was married in Grantham on the 26th July 1802, almost two years after Roger placed his advert in the Stamford Mercury seeking a journeyman Windsor chairmaker. He and his wife Helen were both living in Little Gonerby at the time of their wedding, which is only a few hundred yards from the centre of Grantham. The marriage was witnessed by Richard Hubbard (Chairmaker) and his wife Elizabeth. There is every possibility that all four joined Sophia Taylor at the funeral of her husband in Grantham on 22nd Oct 1801. It is no wonder that the chairs produced in Sleaford by Thomas Marsh, and later by his son James, were so similar to those manufactured in the workshop of Roger and Sophia Taylor in Grantham, shown above.

It seems that Richard Hubbard was the second person to set up a workshop for the production of windsor chairs in Grantham as he placed an advert in the Stamford Mercury in Sept 1807 seeking journeymen for that purpose. All the chairs stamped HUBBARD are distinctly different from Roger and Sophia Taylor’s model in that none have ever been recorded with a turned underarm support. I would suggest that Roger Taylor designed his chairs specifically for office and administration work connected to the Napoleonic War effort, which explains his frugal and cost cutting techniques, whereas Richard Hubbard designed his chairs for residential use for the expanding merchant classes.

Hubbard Grantham

I*Hubbard Grantham

Top chair signed HUBBARD GRANTHAM - produced in the workshop of Richard.

Bottom chair signed I*HUBBARD GRANTHAM - probably produced in the workshop of Richard’s son: John.

Marsh Sleaford side chair 

Thames Valley side chair

2 side chairs, dating from the early 19th century, sometimes known as Windsor stools when they were made. Top chair is signed MARSH SLEAFORD and the bottom is unsigned but displaying features associated with the Thames Valley makers. The Lincolnshire-made chair has the back hoop with a tapered socket joint where it meets the seat whereas the other has a  right-angle reduction in cross section and the resulting shoulder sits on the top of the seat.

The MARSH chair has plain back legs whereas the Thames Valley chair has decoration to all four legs, it also has an edge bead and an incised scribe mark around the edge of the upper surface of its seat along with two oblique spindles supporting the back bow, none of which appear on the Lincolnshire chair. 

Another feature which is well demonstrated by these two chairs is the decoration on the front legs. They both have the ring and cove design but their placement is quite different on each; whereas the Lincolnshire chairs always have the turnings well down the leg from the seat, it is so common to find the Thames Valley chairs have theirs so much closer to the seat.

Taylor Grantham side chair

Thames Valley side chair

2 comb back side chairs, the top being signed TAYLOR GRANTHAM while the bottom is unsigned but has features that would lead one to conclude that it was made in the Thames Valley area.

The Lincolnshire chair with the two outside large turned back supports, has tapered socket joints, bored through and wedged, as to be expected while the other has square section outside back supports which are abruptly reduced so that the shoulder sits on top of the seat slab. Every Lincolnshire comb back side chair that I have ever recorded has a plain design to the comb, as shown above, while the Thames Valley chair has a pleasingly decoration to edge, it also has an incised mark around the outside of the seat near to the edge of the upper surface whereas the Lincolnshire chair has no such decoration. The design of the back splat is typical of the Thames Valley, often being referred to as a wheelback, but signed Lincolnshire chairs do exist with this pattern, although they are very rare.

Only Lincolnshire makers made distinctive comb back armchairs with curved top, or cresting, rails and turned outer spindles; some have splats: first below unstamped, possibly TAYLOR; second below stamped G WILSON.

Unstamped Lincolnshire comb back possibly Taylor

Lincolnshire comb back G Wilson

Some have spindles; first below unstamped probably MARSH; second below stamped CAMM.

Unstamped Lincolnshire comb back probably Marsh

Lincolnshire comb back Camm

There is another group of chairs of distinctive appearance made from 1843 onwards at Caistor in Lincolnshire in the workshops of William Shirley and John Shadford. The chairs are high comb backs with readily identifiable spindles with bobbins and distinctive stiles (outer back members), arms, under arm supports and heavy leg turnings. Two are shown below.

Shirley/Shadford Caistor Rocking Chair

Shirley/Shadford Caistor armchair

 A variant was a lath back, with or without splat, as below.

Shirley/Shadford Caistor lath back splat back

Shirley/Shadford Caistor lath back

No chairs of this distinctive feel were made in Thames Valley or Nottinghamshire; there is some evidence that such chairs may have been made later in Hull after Caistor-trained makers moved north of the Humber.

William Shirley also made some high back splat back Windsors like the one below.

William Shirley junior high back

William Shirley junior stamp

These chairs are much rarer than the Caistor high comb backs.

It is my belief that the workshops in Lincolnshire that were involved in making Windsor chairs did not all run on the same principle. For instance, it appears that the business run by Thomas, and then his son James Marsh, in Sleaford had virtually no employees but the chairs were mainly made by themselves, whereas for those run by Richard Hubbard and John Amos in Grantham, there is convincing evidence that many journeymen were producing their own individual pattern of chair. This is in contrast with the chairs made in Boston by three generations of Thomas Simpsons who called themselves joiners, carpenters and cabinet makers but only once were they denoted as chairmakers. I have no doubt that in their workshop, there would be a bench that produced Windsor and other chairs, as demand dictated, and it would be used by different journeymen over the years. They could have completed their apprenticeship in other parts of the country before arriving in Boston. This could well explain the chair pictured below, as it is impressed with the mark of T SIMPSON BOSTON and, in my experience, is unique in that it has a tongue at the rear of the seat, supporting the two oblique spindles and an incised mark around the edge of the back bow. This chair demonstrates two important features. Firstly, that the characteristics highlighted in this article cannot be anything but guidelines and never rigid rules; secondly, that there is always the chance that some journeyman working for a Lincolnshire master, may have learnt his trade elsewhere in the country and could have produced an item with features from outside of the county. Nonetheless, the occurrence of a preponderant combination of the features distinguished above will usually lead to a clear identification of area of origin.

Simpson Boston

Exceptions that prove the rule are shown by the variability of the four signed AMOS GRANTHAM chairs on the next page: two incorporate the cut-out wheel motif in the back splat (usually called wheelback chairs) which has, in the past, always been attributed to the Thames Valley region. All the chairs’ other features point firmly to Lincolnshire.

© Sothebys

Further pointers distinguishing a Nottinghamshire from a Lincolnshire chair

There were two main centres of Windsor chairmaking in Nottinghamshire: Worksop and at first Retford (later focussed more on nearby Rockley and Gamston).

Only a handful of Nottinghamshire full size hoop back spindle back armchairs have been recorded. The type seems to have been reserved for low hoop back spindle back child’s chairs. The Nottinghamshire equivalent of the Lincolnshire hoop back spindle back was the hoop back splat back common low armchair. The picture below shows six chairs, each stamped by different makers from both Worksop and Rockley: all have fleur de lys splats with three long spindles either side, crinoline stretchers, three underarm spindles and the same arm turning; the back legs are never plain unlike in Lincolnshire. There are minor variations as to whether there are two rings or three on the legs. Later models have vase shaped feet; earlier ones have a ring and cove at the top and a single ring at the bottom. Ash is rarer than in Lincolnshire: yew and elm common.

© Christies South Kensington Lot 161 12 July 2005

The makers are William Wheatland ( fl. 1822-1828 ) John Whitworth ( fl. 1841-1851 ) George Nicholson ( fl. 1831-1841 ) Frederick Walker ( fl. 1823-1871 ) Elizabeth Gabbitass ( fl. 1839-1844 ) Isaac Allsop ( fl. 1841-1871 )

Nottinghamshire Worksop hoop back splat back best chairs are often very decorative as the next three pictures show.

Probably John Gabbitass, Worksop

Probably John Gabbitass or Benjamin or William Gilling, Worksop

Probably John Gabbitass © Wickersley Antiques

The splats and underarm and leg turnings are plainly more elaborate than Lincolnshire Windsors. The underarm notch is characteristic of Worksop chairs. Nottinghamshire best high chairs all have 4 long spindles either side of the splat and three underarms spindles each side, as do most best low chairs.

Three spindles either side of the splat is an almost invariable rule in a Lincolnshire hoop back splat back high chair so this feature makes distinguishing them relatively straightforward.

The other main centre of Nottinghamshire chair making was Rockley.

A Rockley rocker is shown below. This underarm turning is a clear Nottinghamshire characteristic. The fleur de lys splat is more elaborate than both Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire common chairs with an elongated diamond piercing underneath that is rarely encountered outside Nottinghamshire.

Rockley rocking chair

Some early Rockley chairs have shaped underarm supports morticed into the side of the seat as below. This feature, also seen in Thames Valley chairs, is never seen in Lincolnshire.

Rockley armchair with shaped underarm supports possibly by William Wheatland

The Nottinghamshire hoop back splat back High smoker’s bow is shown below. Instantly recognisable, such models were common in Nottinghamshire (and particularly in Yorkshire) but none are known to have been made in Lincolnshire.

Nottinghamshire or S Yorkshire High Smoker's Bow © Wickersley Antiques

© William Sergeant, Lincolnshire Chair Museum, in collaboration with Julian Parker. September 2019.

More discussion and pictures are available at William Sergeant’s Flickr collection.