Yorkshire compound-bent bow back Windsor armchair, with 6 long sticks, 4 short, turned underarms, turned legs, and H stretcher WS 219

Most people who visit this chair blog will know that I live in Lincolnshire, which accounts for all the chairs from that county on this site. However, I am fortunate to live very close to the Nottinghamshire border as well as being very close to Newark, which in turn means that it is so easy for me to visit the huge antique fair at the Newark showground several times every year. It has been a spectacular hunting ground for me in my search for vernacular furniture. Some of the dealers have got to recognise me and occasionally ask for my thoughts and advice on various pieces that they have brought along with them. Dave is one such dealer and I always make his pitch my first stop every time I visit the fair. He is from over the Humber Bridge in South Yorkshire and he kindly keeps interesting chairs in his van so that I can have first pick, which I really appreciate. 

Yorkshire compound-bent bow back Windsor armchair, with 6 long sticks, 4 short, turned underarms, turned legs through-mortised and wedged, with H stretcher WS 219

A couple of years ago he produced this chair from the back of his van and because it had its legs reduced in length and had been totally painted white, he said it was mine for a few pounds. I knew it was a Yorkshire Windsor chair and told him so, pointing out that it was worth more than he was asking for it. The rather bizarre negotiation then took place where I was talking the price up while he was happy with the first price that had been mentioned. In the end we met in the middle and we were both more than happy. 

It has the unique feature of the compound steam bent back bow, that is a hallmark of these Yorkshire Windsor chairs. Every component appears to be made from Ash wood with everything being contempory with its making and no replacement parts. If you look closely at the image, you will see that the legs are of differing designs - I have no doubt that it started life like this.

Legs through-mortised and wedged from above WS 219

Long sticks through back bow and wedged from above WS 219

Shortly afterwards, I took it along to Tim Garland in Lincoln to discuss the best way to do some sort of restoration work on it. Using stripper to clean off all the white paint was not an option so it was done the hard way - a little bit of scrapping at a time, so as to remove the white and leave as much as possible of its original green paint. Many thanks to Tim and his wife Vicky for doing such a fine job.

Before the paint was removed WS 219

Before the paint was removed WS 219

Underside of seat WS 219

© William Sergeant 2021

Lincolnshire high comb back Windsor armchair, stamped 'I TODD 1844', painted black and gold, with curved crest rail, 8 long spindles, 4 short, turned underarm supports, bell shaped seat, 2 ring front and back leg turnings with a lower ring, H stretcher with darts, side stretcher with darts

Lincolnshire high comb back Windsor armchair, elm and ash with black and gold paint stamped 'I TODD 1844' WS 109

John Todd is mentioned in two books on vernacular furniture and is supposed to have brought to Caistor the tradition of Windsor chair making. This is largely based on one chair stamped with his name and dated 1844. A picture of this chair appears at Plate 26 on p151 of Dr B D Cotton's The English Regional Chair (1990). Nothing else seems to have been written about him but research at the Lincoln Archives has discovered new and interesting information about him.

He was baptised into a Caistor family on 20th October 1782, the youngest of 4 children. His parents were married in Caistor on 18th May 1773 and were John Todd and Damaris Curtis. On the entry in the marriage register the profession of John senior is given as chair maker. It appears that John Todd junior's grandparents were also married in Caistor: Bartholomew Todd and Mary Pinder in 1746.

There are some references to John Todd junior being a juror also owning and renting small parcels of land in his early years. At the age of 37 he married Martha Green, a dress maker from Keelby and ten years older than him. There is a note of this event in the Lincolnshire Chronicle in 1819.  She died unexpectedly in March 1840 again there is a notice in the Lincoln paper. So in the census of 1841 Todd is recorded as a widower and has his niece Ann Sanderson (15) living with him. In 1851 he is living in the Horsemarket in Caistor with his nephew John Sanderson (37 and a joiner) and his niece Ann. By the time the 1861 census he is an old man of 78 still living with his unmarried nephew and niece. He lived till he was 80 and was buried in Caistor in November 1862.

In every reference to him in the papers or censuses, his occupation is always given as chair turner (the same is true of the Ashtons and Greens of Louth, Alford and Spilsby) and nowhere is there a reference to Windsor chair making . If he had been making chairs all his working life, which must have covered at least 45 years, it is quite conceivable that he made thousands of chairs. Where have all these chairs gone and why has only one ever been found with his name on it?

His will in the Lincolnshire Archives makes fascinating reading. It was made six years before he died. In it he leaves his own house, shop and garden in Caistor to his nephew John and goes on to list a further 8 properties that he bequeaths to his nephew and nieces; each one is denoted by the tenant at the time. A list is given below:


2. Tenant, Ann Grantham. To Joseph Sanderson.

3. Tenants, George Porter and Elizabeth Ringrose. To Benjanim Sanderson.

4.        "      , Joseph Wrack and William Keyworth. To William Sanderson.

5.        "      , Charles Mundy and Jane Gord. To Charles Sanderson.

6.        "      , George Moody and William Mundy. To Damaris Bilton, wife of Robert.

7.        "      , James Parke. To Sarah Sanderson.

8.        "     , Thomas Moore and Mary Frow. To Ann Sanderson.

9.        "     , James Harrison and John Dewick (?). To Mary Sanderson.

The riddle of the missing chairs from Todd could easily be explained if he had made only one Windsor style chair in 1844 and all the other chairs that he made were of the rush seated ladder back variety that were made in north-east Lincolnshire. None has ever been found with a maker's name on it.

© William Sergeant 2013 and 2020

30

Arm chair on rockers of the same pattern as No. 31, assumed to have been made in Caistor by the combination of William Shirley and John Shadford. 1840-1890.

31

 

Free standing arm chair with spindles in the back support. This pattern of chair is shown in the drawing book of John Shadford of Caistor, which is kept in the Lincoln Archives.  Some of the pages from that notebook are reproduced in this article  Shadford Shirley & the Caistor Workshop by Bernard Cotton.