Lincolnshire rush-seated cherrywood ladder back side chair: straight back uprights with tapered feet & flattened curved stay rail with button finials; 3 pierced ladders with both upward & downward shapings; cabriole front legs with pad feet morticed into the seat frame; front stretcher with turnery often found in Lincolnshire, double side & rear stretchers

WS 47 Lincolnshire ladder back chair made of cherry wood

I haven't actually seen this chair but this picture was kindly sent to me by John Boram. It's a bit special: made out of cherry wood and with some fancy pierced ladders with a bar top. Beautifully crafted vernacular furniture.

© William Sergeant 2019

William Sergeant's talk on the earliest Windsor chairs in the world

William Sergeant showing three very early Windsor chairs: 2 in the room & 1 on the screen

William Sergeant gave a talk to the Louth Antiquarians' & Naturalists' Society at the Conoco Rooms above Louth Library on Tuesday 8 October 2019 from 7.30 pm. about the earliest Windsor chairs in Lincolnshire & the world

Lincolnshire rush-seated ladder back armchair: straight back uprights with tapered feet & flattened top finials; 5 ladders with lower indented shaping; turned front cabriole legs with pad feet morticed into the seat frame; front stretcher with turnery often found in Lincolnshire, double side & rear stretchers

WS 67 Lincolnshire rush-seated armchair

From the collection of John Boram and with permission to reproduce its image here. A very fine carver with some fruit wood in its construction.

Clissett chair by John Warrender with board seat, 4 spindles within back bars, curved back uprights, shaped front rail, ring-turned front legs (which are slightly higher than the seat)

WS 154 Clissett chair by John Warrender

WS 155 John Warrender I*W stamp

These chairs are easily recognisable as Philip Clissett and members of his family made them for many years in the nineteenth century in and around Herefordshire. I came across a set of three while at the Newark Antique fair and was struck by their excellent condition. I really had no intention of buying them until I noticed some impressed initials at the top of the back legs; I pointed them out to the dealer but he was not in the slightest bit bothered. The letters were quite clear: I*W but they meant nothing to me so I sent an email to Terry Rowell who runs the Philip Clissett website. A short while later he contacted me to say the initial stood for John Warrender, a chairmaker from Worcestershire who was an uncle of Philip Clissett's, and the signed chairs were uncommon. The price was negotiated and I was happy to leave the fair with something, as I had not come across a single chair that could be associated with Lincolnshire.

Lower picture shows the impressed initials of John Warrender on the top of the back leg of chair No 154. He lived and worked in the village of Bransford, Worecesterchire . There is really no need for me to print anything else here but recommend you to visit Terry Rowell's  excellent Philip Clissett website website. You will find everything you need to know about him and his family.

© William Sergeant 2019

Rush-seated Dales chair with 3 spindles between back bars, straight back poles and front legs (which are slightly higher than the seat), regional turnery device on front stretcher, double side stretchers

WS 156 Rush-seated Dales chair

This chair came with the Clissett type chairs so in effect I got four chairs for the price of three. I recognised it as what Cotton describes in his book as a "Dales" chair from the Lancashire/Cumbria region. There were several features that struck me about this chair as it was probably the first time that I had handled one of these chairs. I was initial surprised how heavy it was along with being very well made. It is all ash construction with its original rush seat that had been painted a dark brown colour.

The two horizontal rails securing the upright turned back spindles are not turned but flattened and rectangular in section. You will notice that the front legs terminate just above the seat level - a feature that I never associate with the Lincolnshire rush seated chairs.

For similar chairs, see Dr B D Cotton The English Regional Chair (1990) NW 30, NW 31 and NW 32, p.330.

© William Sergeant 2019

Thames Valley side chair, star splat, 6 long spindles, ribbon stiles, with shaped crest rail, bell seat, incised line on seat, ring & cove front legs with 1 lower ring, plain back legs, H stretcher,

WS 197 Thames Valley side chair

I happened across a pair of these side chairs at the Stamford Antique centre and could not resist the temptation of purchasing them, even though I knew that they were not of Lincolnshire origin. I had seen a picture of this type of chair in Dr B D Cotton's The English Regional Chair, figure TV27 p.49, but it was the first time I had been able to handle one. To the casual observer, every component beneath the seat could easily be attributed to a local chair whereas everything above is quite different. The seat viewed from above is long front to back and narrow with an incised mark all around the edge of the upper surface; this is almost opposite to the wide and short front to back that I would expect on a Lincolnshire chair while the incised mark just never occurs on a Lincolnshire side chair.

The back support is more elegant and extra work would have been required to make it - the outside spindles are square tapered with tenons top and bottom for joining. The back comb is well shaped with a waving crest; in section it is heavily chamfered to almost a point at the top down to a wide base to allow for the connecting tenons from the outside supports. Every component is of ash wood, probably produced around 1800 or a little earlier and likely to have been made in the area to the west of London along the Thames Valley.

© William Sergeant 2019