Thames Valley comb back & Gillows bow back Windsors in Jamaica Inn (1939)

Thanks to my old friend Paul Noakes for spotting these Windsors on film:

Jamaica Inn (1939). Film by Hitchock. Dramatic end for Leslie Banks. Thames Valley comb back vase splat Windsor armchair with cabriole legs by unknown maker, (1750-1770) #regionalfurniture #windsorchair #ThamesValley pic.twitter.com/u2ie118HMG

— Julian Parker (@jhjparker) January 7, 2020

and

Jamaica Inn (1939) Film by Hitchcock. Romantic lead by Robert Newton. Windsor chair by Gillows of Lancaster. #regionalfurniture #windsorchair #Gillows pic.twitter.com/G3jar5k1Bb

— Julian Parker (@jhjparker) January 7, 2020

An excellent article "Gillow’s ‘Neat and Strong Windsor Chairs’ for home and export in the eighteenth century" by Susan E. Stuart may be found on the Regional Furniture Society website. Her more recent update article More about Gillows’ Windsor and Common Chairs is also available on the RFS website.

Robert Parrott and Michael Harding Hill's article John Pitt (1714 - 1759) Thames Valley Windsor Chair Maker  discusses early Thames Valley chairs similar to the one in the first Jamaica Inn Tweet above. 

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

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Unsigned comb back side chair with typical Thames Valley features - included in the Exhibition to demonstrate some of the different design characteristics of a chair from another region.