Medium bow back Lincolnshire Windsor armchair stamped Brand Marsh Sleaford with 9 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarm supports, bell-shaped seat, ring and cove turned front legs with 1 lower ring, plain back legs, crinoline stretcher WS 164 & WS 163

Medium bow back Lincolnshire Windsor armchair stamped Brand Marsh Sleaford with 9 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarm supports, bell-shaped seat, ring and cove turned front legs with 1 lower ring, plain back legs, crinoline stretcher WS 164 

Medium bow back Lincolnshire Windsor armchair stamped Brand Marsh Sleaford  WS 163

Many thanks to Robert Williams, a fellow collector of vernacular furniture, for alerting me to the sale of this chair in Bury St. Edmunds. I had missed the pre-auction advertisement and if it not had been for the diligence of Robert this chair could have slipped back into oblivion for ever! What makes this chair so special is that it is stamped BRAND MARSH SLEAFORD, which was fortunately mentioned in the auction notes on this lot. The Sleaford chairmakers John Brand and Thomas Marsh are well known, with chairs stamped by them individually having been recorded, but this is the very first time that one has turned up with both names, indicating that they worked together in partnership for a while.  

Both appear in Pigot's Directory for 1822, John Brand as 'turner & chair maker', Thos. Marsh as 'Windsor chair maker'. Marsh died in April 1844 aged 67 and Brand on 26 March 1850 'advanced in years', according to the Stamford Mercury.  John Brand is shown in the 1841 census as then aged 55, although ages in that census are often not accurate. He seems to have been baptised in 1785 or 1786 and was thus a handful of years younger than Thomas Marsh.

I got in touch with the auction house after the sale and asked for my details to be passed on to the purchaser. In due course we made contact and I travelled to Suffolk to meet the new owner, who now appreciates the significance of this chair and will be a good custodian. I set up an improvised photographic studio in the kitchen and the result can seen above.

Description: thick elm seat with chamfered under-edges grain running from front to back. Bell shaped in plan. Cherry spindles, 8 short and 9 long, one of which is broken. Very delicate bent underarm supports secured by screw underneath. Yew wood front legs with ring and cove decoration. Plain back legs, one of yew and one with an inappropriate later replacement. Yew crinoline stretcher with two ash short connecting stretchers to back legs. There are no securing pins in the top of the back bow unlike Marsh signed chairs were they are always present. 4 pins in the armbow, two to secure the backbow and two to secure the frontmost spindles. Seat dimensions : 19 5/8 by 15 3/16 inches. A fine example of an early Lincolnshire Windsor chair.

© William Sergeant 2015 and Julian Parker 2020