East Anglian cabinetmaker's plum wood square back armchair, crest and cross rails squared with two tapered laths either side of an amphora-shaped splat, with curved rear legs, tapered front legs, board seat, curved arms morticed into ogee underarm supports, single stretcher all round WS 193

East Anglian cabinetmaker's plum wood square back armchair, crest and cross rails squared with two tapered laths either side of an amphora-shaped splat, with curved rear legs, tapered front legs, board seat, curved arms morticed into ogee underarm supports in the Hepplewhite manner, single stretcher all round WS 193

An auction house near Stamford offered this chair for sale in May 2016, there were other items of interest included in the lots so I went along to the viewing. On examining this chair, which was rightly described as fruitwood, I found it to be in very poor condition with numerous crude repairs and both back legs were completely broken at seat level. I recognised it to be a cabinet maker's chair from East Anglia and made out of plumwood. It must have looked beautiful when it was first made over 200 years ago. On the day of the auction, much against my better judgment, I decided to bid for it as I knew there was little chance of ever purchasing a plumwood chair ever again. The opening bid was for five pounds, the second bid was mine at six pounds and much to my surprise it was knocked down to me.

Well this ugly duckling turned into a fine handsome swan after I let a good friend and restorer work his magic on it. I couldn't believe the transformation - I now have a beautiful Georgian armchair, strong and stable, taking pride of place in my sitting room. A chair very similar to this one, but with two piercings through the central splat appears at figure EA11 on p. 218 of Dr B D Cotton's The English Regional Chair (1990).

© William Sergeant 2018 and 2020

Squared back East Anglian Windsor side chair with 7 staggered long spindles, framed back, bell seat, single ring leg turnings x 4, H stretcher with darts

WS 142 squared back East Anglian Windsor side chair 

This is the side chair that goes with No 143. If you study the Mendlesham chairs in Dr B D Cotton’s The English Regional Chair (1990) there is only a single side chair shown which makes this worthy of inclusion here just on that fact alone.

Many thanks to Tony and Jan from Suffolk for allowing me to publish these pictures here.

© William Sergeant 2019

Squared back East Anglian Windsor armchair with 7 staggered long spindles, shaped underarms fixed to back frame and shaped underarm supports, bell seat, single ring leg turnings x 4, H stretcher with darts

WS 143 Squared back East Anglian Windsor armchair

There is absolutely nothing about this chair to associate it with Lincolnshire but it is just such an elegant chair that it deserves a wider audience.  I had seen it briefly before and asked its owner to bring it along to my Chair Study day on 22 September 2014.

The most outstanding feature, which is not immediately obvious from this picture, are the staggered back spindles; if you look where they meet the seat you see they are not in line. The next important item to note is that the upper half could well have been made by a cabinet maker and the lower half by a turner. The overall appearance is similar to the Mendlesham chairs that appear in Dr B D Cotton’s The English Regional Chair (1990) pp.246-256. However there are some notable subtle differences - every one in Cotton's book has double top bars and none of the vertical back spindles reach all the way down to the seat board whereas this chair has a single top bar and the vertical spindles are let into the seat. One overiding feature tends to unite the Mendlesham chairs: it is the incise mark on the legs to denote where the stretchers are to be drilled and let in - those marks appear on this chair and No 142.

© William Sergeant 2019

29

 

Windsor armchair signed TAYLOR GRANTHAM. This is the only chair of this pattern that has ever been recorded and is unusual for two reasons. Firstly, it has very few turned components, like a cabinet maker would produce, and secondly the design is what I would expect to be produced in the Thames Valley region. I have included in this exhibition as it demonstrates that there are probably other design of chairs that were produced by the Lincolnshire chair makers and as yet undiscovered and unrecorded.

34

Cabinet maker’s armchair, from Lawrence Shaw Antiques, Horncastle. Fabric seat.

35

Cabinet maker’s sidechair, from Horkstow via North Lincs auction, re-rushed seat. 

36

Cabinet maker’s armchair, from Batemans Auctioneers, Stamford. Re-rushed seat. These last three chairs, No. 34, No. 35 & No. 36, have every component made out of elm wood; pattern of chairs is not specific to Lincs but to Eastern coastal counties. Even the smallest town in Georgian times would have had a cabinet maker’s workshop, producing all manner of domestic furniture including these elegant chairs. (1780-1830).