Windsors starring on the set in 'Dead of Night' (1945)

My old friend Paul Noakes is a man with a great eye for detail and brilliant at clocking unusual items in strange contexts and unexpected places. His latest great spot is some Windsor chairs centre stage on the set of 'Dead of Night', a 1945 Ealing Studios horror production.

Publicity poster

Publicity poster

Much of the action in the film takes place in the sitting room of a house in the country. The room has two fine Windsor chairs.

Front view of Googie Withers sitting in Nottinghamshire or Yorkshire high smoker's Windsor; rear view of 18th century mahogany Windsor. L-R Anthony Baird as Hugh Grainger, Judy Kelly as Joyce Grainger, Roland Culver as Eliot Foley, Googie Withers as Joan Cortland, Mary Merrall as Mrs Foley and Frederick Valk as Dr. Van Straaten.

The 18th century mahogany Windsor is an uncommon type which I knew I had seen before.

Front view of 18th century mahogany Windsor. L-R: Frederick Valk as Dr. Van Straaten, Anthony Baird as Hugh Grainger, Googie Withers as Joan Cortland and Sally Ann Howes as Sally O'Hara.

Rear three-quarter view of 18th century mahogany Windsor, showing symmetrical bladed underarm support. Mervyn Johns as Walter Craig about to strangle Frederick Valk as Dr. Van Straaten.

The rear view jogged my memory of this chair sold by a Guernsey auctioneer in 2017. It is the same rare type.

'Garrick Chair' © Martel Maides 2017

The lot description read: "The Garrick Chair - a fine George II mahogany comb back Windsor arm chair, the back with a shaped and scratch moulded top rail, over bold, out-scrolled arms, the broad, shaped seat raised on four cabriole legs with pad feet, united by turned stretchers, 43¾in. (111cm.) high to top of back, 31in. (78.5cm.) max. width, 17¾in. (45cm.), height to seat. This is known as 'The Garrick Chair', and was reputedly bought at Mrs. Carr's 1839 sale at Garrick's Villa (previously Hampton House), whose husband Thomas Carr succeeded the famous English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer David Garrick in the villa at Hampton near Richmond."

The history of Garrick's villa after his death in 1779 may be found here.

Similar mahogany chair © Woolley & Wallis 10 January 2018: A George III mahogany Windsor armchair, the comb top rail above a stick back and scroll arms, on cabriole legs united by an 'H' stretcher.

A further chair of this type was sold at Christie's New York on 21 March 2015 for $22,500: 

"LOT 1285 A GEORGE II SOLID MAHOGANY WINDSOR ARMCHAIR CIRCA 1750
With scroll-carved cresting and out-curved arms above a saddle seat on cabriole legs joined by stretchers."

The other chair which features in these scenes is a Nottinghamshire or Yorkshire (or more rarely Thames Valley) high smoker's Windsor.

Dr B D Cotton in The English Regional Chair (1990) at p. 94 re Figure TV222: 

"Best high smoker’s Windsor chair. Beech with elm top hoop, arms, raised arm section and seal, fruitwood splat. Attributed to High Wycombe, c. 1850-80. This form of chair was also made extensively in the Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire region [...] the Wycombe made versions are often characterised in having particularly vase shaped legs and narrower turnings to those adopted in the North. A number of the Wycombe manufacturers made this style of chair, an example of which is shown in the catalogue of Glenister and Gibbons (fl. 1865-79) [...] The cost of this style of chair was 8/- (40p) at the time that the catalogue was produced."

At pp. 193-4 Dr Cotton expands:

"The following group of [high back smokers'] chairs is typical of Yorkshire chairs made from the 1830s until about 1900, particularly in the major centres of Leeds, Sheffield and Hull. These are the high back splat Windsors which are characterised in having a sawn and shaped three-part arm [...] and are the largest of all the English Windsor chairs, made with heavy individual parts and large seats. These Windsors were called ‘smoking high’ chairs by the Nottinghamshire makers,and 'best high back smokers’by the Yorkshire makers. In recent years, broad arm’ Windsor has become common as a descriptive term, since it focuses on the relative distinction between the continuous bent narrow arm bow, typical of many Windsors, and the broad flattened shape utilised in the smoking high chairs.

The relatively large number of these chairs which has been recorded with makers’ stamps probably indicates both the popularity of this design, and the strong competition which existed between makers in the industrial towns of the West Riding of Yorkshire. This style of chair was made in a hierarchy of woods in the same way as those made in the Worksop, Nottinghamshire tradition where yew was the most prestigious wood, with cherry or alder next, and ash and elm being the least expensive option."

Front view of Googie Withers as Joan Cortland with Mervyn Johns as Walter Craig by the Nottinghamshire or Yorkshire high smoker's Windsor.

Front view of Nottinghamshire or Yorkshire high smoker's Windsor. L-R: Googie Withers as Joan Cortland, Frederick Valk as Dr. Van Straaten and Anthony Baird as Hugh Grainger.

Rear view of Nottinghamshire or Yorkshire high smoker's Windsor. L-R: Roland Culver as Eliot Foley, Googie Withers as Joan Cortland and Judy Kelly as Joyce Grainger.

An example from Yorkshire:

Yorkshire high smoker's Windsor stamped J Watson (of Skipton, Yorkshire).

An example from Nottinghamshire:

Nottinghamshire high smoker's Windsor stamped I Allsop (of Worksop, Nottinghamshire) © Museum of the Home

One other high back Windsor makes a fleeting appearance.

Nottinghamshire or Yorkshire Windsor, Naunton Wayne as Barry Potter

My thanks to Paul Noakes for spotting these chairs.

© Julian Parker 2021

Nottinghamshire bow back Windsor side chair stamped Nicholson Rockley with 6 long spindles, bell-shaped seat with fantail and 2 spindles at an angle, with ring and cove leg turnings with 1 lower ring x 4 WS 118

Nottinghamshire bow back Windsor side chair stamped Nicholson Rockley with 6 long spindles, bell-shaped seat with fantail and 2 spindles at an angle, with ring and cove leg turnings with 1 lower ring x 4 WS 118

The wonderful thing about collecting chairs is finding something special! I remember having a conversation with a dealer about memorizing the designs of chairs in Dr B D Cotton's The English Regional Chair (1990) and then searching for something out of the ordinary.  He was very dismissive and likened me to a train spotter for ticking off the pictures. He completely missed the point: the fun of the search! Anyway, I know this is not a Lincolnshire chair but its very existence is worth recording here because if you look in Cotton's book there are many pictures of the superb Windsor chairs that were made in Rockley, in Nottinghamshire, but there is no mention or picture of a side chair. They were thought not to exist. Well feast your eyes on this: the ironic thing is that this chair spent several years in an antique shop in Newark and I must have walked past it many times. There was nothing about it to suggest to me that it was a local chair and I never even stopped to inspect it. Side chairs with a fantail seat and 2 angled spindles joined into the hoop are a standard design in the Thames Valley and, as far as I am aware, this is the only East Midlands side chair featuring this design and construction method. 

Only when a fellow collector told me that it was stamped with the maker's name did I inspect it closely. 

Nottinghamshire bow back Windsor side chair stamped Nicholson Rockley  WS 117

Imagine my surprise when I saw Nicholson Rockley. Because it had been unsold for so long I think the shop owner was really pleased to let me have it at a very much reduced rate. The lesson for me and anyone else reading this is simple: never ever walk past a chair without inspecting it thoroughly for signs of who made it.

PS there is one other armchair from Lincolnshire recorded with a fantail and 2 angled spindles which will be posted tomorrow (update: now to be found here).

© William Sergeant 2020