Yorkshire compound-bent bow back Windsor armchair, with 6 long sticks, 2 short, crook underarms, round seat, turned legs and H stretcher, painted green WS 218

Yorkshire compound-bent bow back Windsor armchair, with 6 long sticks, 2 short, crook underarms, round seat, turned legs and H stretcher, painted green WS 218

The retired dealer mentioned in WS 217 allowed me to record this green painted Windsor chair and told me that he had purchased it many years ago from a Sheffield auction house. He had seen others with their distinctive circular seat and believed that they were produced in Yorkshire. 

Side view WS 218

As is obvious from this picture, the back bow also has the compound bend mentioned in Bowett's RF 2004 article, which he points out is unique among British Windsor chairs. He goes on to say " The top bow is round in section and has a two-dimensional or compound curve; it is not only arched, as are all Windsor top bows, but it is also curved backwards. This gives the chair a barrel-shaped back which is amazingly comfortable, and suggests a sophistication of design which belies their often crude appearance."

An identical chair, again made out of ash wood, passed through the sale room of Summersgills in Easingwold (which is a few miles to the Northwest of York) in September 2017 but was simply described as a "Windsor chair". A third identical chair is located in a Museum in the City of York with the title of a local Windsor chair.

Arm terminal WS 218

Round seat, painted green WS 218 

© William Sergeant 2021

Lincolnshire low bow back Windsor armchair, probably Hubbard Grantham, with 5-piercing fleur de lys and teardrop piercing splat, 6 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarms, straight seat edges, ring and cove front leg turnings with 1 lower ring, plain back legs, crinoline stretcher WS 201

Lincolnshire low bow back Windsor armchair, probably Hubbard Grantham, with 5-piercing fleur de lys and teardrop piercing splat, 6 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarms, straight seat edges, ring and cove front leg turnings with 1 lower ring, plain back legs, crinoline stretcher WS 201

The low profile of the back bow gives this chair a distinctive squat appearance, like no other Lincolnshire chair that I can think of. I knew that they existed as a signed pair are illustrated in published works on vernacular furniture but I had been waiting for years for one to appear on the open market so that I could add it to my collection. It was offered for sale in a Shropshire sale room, with a good description and photos, so I bid with confidence and secured its purchase. After a couple of months the chair was delivered to my home and I was delighted with the overall condition. The seat is of elm, while all other components are made from yew wood with the back legs of ash; a typical combination that is so often found in Lincolnshire best chairs. It has one feature that is so rare on chairs made in the county, that is the incised scratch mark around the edge of the back bow.

This chair is not stamped by the workshop owner but the two that appear in Dr B D Cotton's The English Regional Chair (1990) at figures NE24 and NE25 on p. 118 were stamped clearly HUBBARD GRANTHAM, so I am in no doubt that this chair was produced in the workshop of Richard Hubbard of Little Gonerby about 1807 - 1820.

© William Sergeant 2019

Medium bow back Lincolnshire Windsor spindle back armchair stamped AMOS GRANTHAM, with 9 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarms, straight seat sides, ring and cove front leg turnings, with 1 lower ring, plain back legs, H stretcher with darts WS 190 & WS 189

Medium bow back Lincolnshire Windsor spindle back armchair stamped AMOS GRANTHAM, with 9 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarms, straight seat sides, ring and cove front leg turnings, with 1 lower ring, plain back legs, H stretcher with darts WS 190

This is a typical early Lincolnshire windsor armchair. Plain back legs with the front ones having the design of a thin ring above an exaggerated shallow cove, an all-spindle back support and curved underarm supports. This one has an ash seat with yew for the other components. I believe that this is the very essence of a chair that was made in the first period of Windsor chairmaking in the county, namely 1800-1812. 

The name stamp on the edge of the seat is AMOS GRANTHAM, so we know exactly in whose workshop it was made. It came from a house just outside Newark and it had been in the family for many years. It was in a slightly distressed state when I brought it at auction but I got a restorer to make it usable again.

John Amos was a wheelwright and as such ran a business for the first 15 years of his working life making wagons and carts for farmers and merchants as well as servicing ones that were already in use. It was not until 1809 that the first advert by him was posted in the paper searching for journeymen chairmakers. All of the chairs that I have seen from his workshop are of the second period type, which I believe started to be produced in about 1812 but I was not surprised to seen this design by him. This leads me to think that this chair was probably made in the first 3 years of his manufacture, namely 1809-1812.

Bench holdfast marks on medium bow back Lincolnshire Windsor spindle back armchair WS 190 stamped AMOS GRANTHAM WS 189

This picture shows part of the underside of the armbow of this AMOS chair. You can see quite clearly the small areas of cross-hatching that are impressed into the surface of the wood. This was caused by bench holdfasts. These have been used by woodworkers since ancient times and are used, as their name suggests, to hold a piece of wood firmly to the workbench. They are the shape of a swan's neck, with the neck part slipped down a hole in the bench and the crooked head part tapped with a mallet to spread the bend and hold the wood secure. They can easily be released with a sideways tap. 

For the holdfast to grip the wood better, there is cross-hatching filed into the end. This is what has left the marks above. The length of yew wood would be soften in the steam box and the placed against the profile form that it is to be moulded around and once bent, it is held firmly in place while it cools by a series of holdfasts. 

© William Sergeant 2017 and 2020

Thomas Simpson, Boston stamped high bow back Lincolnshire Windsor armchair with 5-piercing fleur de lys upper splat, double pierced lower splat, crook underarm supports, 2 x 3 long spindles, 2 x 3 underarm spindles, ring and cove front leg turnings & plain back legs, crinoline stretcher WS 207

Thomas Simpson, Boston stamped high bow back Lincolnshire Windsor armchair with 5-piercing fleur de lys upper splat, double pierced lower splat, crook underarm supports, 2 x 3 long spindles, 2 x 3 underarm spindles, ring and cove front leg turnings with lower ring & plain back legs, crinoline stretcher WS 207

Another chair from the collection of James Drake, this time a yew wood chair with reduced legs, but stamped clearly on the edge of the seat: T SIMPSON & Co BOSTON. There is another Simpson Windsor armchair at WS 123, and if you compare the back splat of both, I think that you would agree with me that both were made from the same master pattern, with the main difference being that this chair has a crinoline stretcher whereas WS 123 has an H stretcher with darts.

© William Sergeant 2020

Lincolnshire medium bow back Windsor armchair, stamped I * TAYLOR GRANTHAM with 9 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarms, bell-shaped seat, ring and cove turned front legs with 1 lower ring, plain back legs, crinoline stretcher WS 211

Lincolnshire medium bow back Windsor armchair, stamped I * TAYLOR GRANTHAM with 9 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarms, bell-shaped seat, ring and cove turned front legs with 1 lower ring, plain back legs, crinoline stretcher WS 211

Regular students of Lincolnshire Windsor chairs will have seen the image of this chair before. It is simply remarkable. It appears on p. 138 of Thomas Crispin's The English Windsor Chair (1992) and again in Dr B D Cotton's The English Regional Chair (1990) at figure NE12 on p. 113. Both books show the name stamp of I*TAYLOR which relates to the eldest son of Roger and Sophia Taylor, one John Taylor. Those of you who have seen my lecture at Conway Hall on Youtube will know that he made chairs for only three years, from February 1808 until January 1811, after which he became a mail coach guard for 31 years. The only other recorded I*TAYLOR stamped chair passed through the now closed auction room of Neale's of Nottingham in 2002. 

Detail of upper rear of seat of Lincolnshire medium bow back Windsor armchair, stamped I * TAYLOR GRANTHAM

WS 204 on the left, WS 211 on the right

You may also wish to compare this chair to yesterday's post WS 204, which has no makers mark, but I am sure both were made by the same hand.

The extraordinary fact is that this chair appeared on eBay recently and was spotted by a fellow enthusiast (one Julian Parker) who kindly notified me. The young lady in London selling the chair had seen the name stamp but had been unable to decipher the name. She had acquired the chair off Greenwich market at least 15 years before, besides that there was no other provenance.

© William Sergeant and Julian Parker 2020

Lincolnshire medium bow back Windsor armchair, with 9 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarms, bell-shaped seat, ring and cove turned front legs with 1 lower ring, plain back legs, crinoline stretcher WS 204

Lincolnshire medium bow back Windsor armchair, with 9 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarms, bell-shaped seat, ring and cove turned front legs with 1 lower ring, plain back legs, crinoline stretcher WS 204

My attention was drawn to this chair, that was advertised on Instagram, by my fellow furniture enthusiast Tim Garland. From the image by the vendor, it was obvious that it was in poor condition with some serious structural issues - also it was said to be possibly from Welsh borders. I recognised it as a typical early spindle back Lincolnshire Windsor armchair, dating from about 1815. There was no indication whether it was marked by the workshop owner. After having completing the deal, the chair duly arrived and the breakages were even worse than I had initially thought, but no matter, as it was soon in the capable hands of Tim. He repaired and restored the chair and the result can be seen in the picture above. He made a splendid job, and we both felt a deep sense of satisfaction of having rescued a valuable historical piece of vernacular furniture.

The maker of this chair remained a mystery to me, but as you may have heard me say before, the maker always leaves his finger prints all over his chairs, if you just know where to look. The give away was the incised ring around the back legs to indicate where the hole needed to be drilled to take the side stretcher. The only signed chairs, that have this feature, are those that are signed TAYLORS, so those made in the workshop of William Taylor. There remains the possibility that those made in his brother's workshop (John), could have the same implicit mark but as I had never handled one, and am most unlikely ever to find one, so the final identity of the marker remains uncertain.

© William Sergeant 2019

Lincolnshire Windsor bow back medium armchair stamped TAYLORS GRANTHAM with 3 piercing fleur de lys upper splat, teardrop pierced lower splat, 6 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarm supports, bell-shaped seat, with cut-and-shut Nottinghamshire 3 ring leg turnings with vase-shaped feet and crinoline stretcher WS 206

Lincolnshire Windsor bow back medium armchair stamped TAYLORS GRANTHAM with 3 piercing fleur de lys upper splat, teardrop pierced lower splat, 6 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarm supports, bell-shaped seat, with cut-and-shut Nottinghamshire 3 ring leg turnings with vase-shaped feet and crinoline stretcher WS 206

Thanks to former Regional Furniture Society member, James Drake, for allowing me to record and publish an image of this chair, stamped TAYLORS GRANTHAM. I would ask you to study the picture of this chair closely. It certainly took me by surprise: there is something clearly wrong with it. The legs, with the three ring turning motif are not something that I would associate with an early Lincolnshire Windsor armchair, and sure enough, on close inspection it soon became obvious that legs belong to another chair, probably from Nottinghamshire. There has been some serious damage to this chair as the underneath of the seat shows, while the legs are quite a different colour to the rest of the chair. It's a splendid example of a 'cut and shut' chair! However, I am sure the seat and every component above are by William Taylor's workshop in Grantham, as the name stamp would indicate.

© William Sergeant 2019

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

Lincolnshire high back bow back Windsor armchair by Amos Grantham with 5-piercing fleur de lys upper splat with lower diamond, double pierced lower splat, 6 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarms, straight seat sides, ring and cove front leg turnings with1 lower ring, plain back legs, crinoline stretcher WS 132

Lincolnshire high back bow back Windsor armchair by Amos Grantham with 5-piercing fleur de lys upper splat with lower diamond piercing, double pierced lower splat, 6 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarms, straight seat sides, ring and cove front leg turnings with1 lower ring, plain back legs, crinoline stretcher WS 132

This superbly photographed chair is in the collection of Tom Wells and he kindly sent this picture and gave me permission to reproduce it here.

Please note that this chair has the maker's name stamped on the seat edge which is not very common amongst for these Grantham makers who tend to favour the upper rear of the seat in the centre just below the lower splat.

© Tom Wells and William Sergeant 2013 and 2020 

Medium bow back Lincolnshire Windsor armchair stamped MARSH of Sleaford with 9 long spindles, 6 short, crook underarms, bell-shaped seat, ring and cove front legs with 1 lower ring, plain back legs, H stretcher WS 105

Medium bow back Lincolnshire Windsor armchair stamped MARSH of Sleaford with 9 long spindles, 6 short, crook underarms, bell-shaped seat, ring and cove front legs with 1 lower ring, plain back legs, H stretcher WS 105

Many thanks to Michael Pashby Antiques in New York City for providing this wonderful image from his stock . It was available along with 9 side chairs by the same maker - all signed. The crook underarm support is the first I have ever seen by this father and son pair of makers - it probably was made by the father (Thomas) and fully deserves to be recorded here. See WS 101 & WS 29 for chairs by the same maker.

© William Sergeant 2013 and 2020

Lincolnshire bow back spindle back Windsor armchair stamped T SIMPSON BOSTON with 8 long spindles 6 short, crook underarm support, bell shaped seat with fantail and two angled spindles, ring and cove leg turnings with 1 lower ring x 4 with crinoline stretcher WS 130

Lincolnshire bow back spindle back Windsor armchair stamped T SIMPSON BOSTON with 8 long spindles 6 short, crook underarm support, bell shaped seat with fantail and two angled spindles, ring and cove leg turnings with 1 lower ring x 4 with crinoline stretcher WS 130

There are several outstanding features that make a Lincolnshire chair easily recognisable from a Thames Valley chair, one of which is that a Lincolnshire chair never has two spindles angled upwards from a fantail from the back of the seat. Well this chair completely disproves the rule!

Thank you to Mitch Mitchell for allowing me to record his chair here. I was allowed to make a brief inspection of this chair before photographing it and I am completely satisfied that it was made in Boston; the legs, spindles, bows and seat are exactly as you would expect so I have no doubt that it was made in the county. A further very rare feature in a Lincolnshire chair is the scribe line round the back bow: this feature is common in Nottinghamshire but almost never found in Lincolnshire.

That just leaves the extra spindles for a back support : well, perhaps this one was made as an experiment to see what was the extra expense and whether or not it made the chair more stable. It's certainly the only armchair that I have ever seen from the East Midlands with this configuration. If you look at the side chair in WS 118 you will see something similar but that chair was made in Nottinghamshire. Perhaps journeymen who had experience in Thames Valley workshops made both chairs.

© William Sergeant 2020

3 Lincolnshire bow back spindle back Windsor armchair by Taylor, Marsh and Hubbard with 8, 9 and 9 long spindles, 6, 8 and 6 short, turned underarm x 2 crook underarm x 1 straight seat sides x 2 bell shaped seat x 1, ring and cove front leg turnings with 1 lower ring, plain back legs, H stretcher x 3 darts x 2 WS 114

3 Lincolnshire bow back spindle back Windsor armchairs by Taylor, Marsh and Hubbard with 8, 9 and 9 long spindles, 6, 8 and 6 short, turned underarm x 2 crook underarm x 1 straight seat sides x 2 bell shaped seat x 1, ring and cove front leg turnings with 1 lower ring, plain back legs, H stretcher x 3 darts x 2 WS 114

These three chairs are all signed by their maker: left, Taylor of Grantham; middle, Marsh of Sleaford; right, Hubbard of Grantham. They just go to show how popular these spindle back chairs were in Lincolnshire. There are many similarities, namely: all have ring and cove front leg turnings and plain back legs, they are made out of ash except two outside ones which have elm for their seats.

© William Sergeant 2020

Lincolnshire low bow back Windsor armchair with 3 x quatrefoil pierced splat, 6 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarm supports, straight seat sides, ring and cove front legs, plain back legs, crinoline stretcher WS 113

Lincolnshire low bow back Windsor armchair with 3 x quatrefoil pierced splat, 6 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarm supports, straight seat sides, ring and cove front legs, plain back legs, crinoline stretcher WS 113

This chair was brought to a talk that I gave about chairmaking in Caistor by a local resident. It was in excellent original condition, just in need of a good dust and wax. The seat is of elm and the rest of yew except for the two back legs which were ash. The ring and cove front leg turnings and plain back legs would point towards it being made in Lincolnshire and the shape of the seat is typical of Grantham. The crinoline stretcher and the crook underarm supports suggest a date of of early 1800s. The quatrefoil piercings on the splat are similar to chairs shown in Dr B D Cotton's The English Regional Chair (1990) at Plate 12 on p. 110 made by John Amos and William Taylor of Westgate, Grantham at figure NE 28 on p. 118.

I am sorry about the carpet but it was the best I could do in Caistor Town Hall. Just take a moment to study this chair as it is probably nearly 200 years old and of a type that rarely appears on the market.

Further chairs with quatrefoil pierced splats may be seen in yesterday's post, WS 184 and also this post. 

© William Sergeant 2013 and 2020

Lincolnshire medium bow back Windsor armchair stamped TAYLORS with quatrefoil and fleur de lys splat, 6 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarms, bell shaped seat, ring and cove front leg turnings, plain back legs, H stretcher with darts WS 194

Lincolnshire medium bow back Windsor armchair stamped TAYLORS with quatrefoil and fleur de lys splat, 6 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarms, bell shaped seat, ring and cove front leg turnings, plain back legs, H stretcher with darts WS 194

A long time ago, a fellow collector of Lincolnshire Windsor chairs had mentioned to me that he had a couple of stamped Taylor chairs in his collection. I had never seen them and wasn't overly interested as I have my own chairs signed by the same maker. However, on a recent visit to his house, I noticed this chair above - I knew that it was made by William Taylor who signed his chairs TAYLORS. I commented that this must be a new addition, whereon he replied that he had told me about it years ago. I had misinterpreted what he had said; I thought he meant Taylor not TAYLORS! The difference is subtle but so important.

I know that William Taylor signed chairs from his workshop as he states the same in an advert in the Stamford Mercury- WS 166 here - and that his signed chairs are very rare. My research has revealed that he left the security of his mother's workshop in December 1811 to set up his own business; at the same time he took on the apprentice William Shirley senior who was halfway through his 7-year tuition having started it under John Taylor.

This chair encapsulates so many features regarding my research. With the help of Chris Goodwin, who is a descendant of the Taylors of Grantham, I can reveal that William Taylor gave up chairmaking on the 7th October 1815 to work for the Post Office as a mail coach guard, something he did for the next 30 years. This means that this chair can be precisely dated to the 4 years before Oct 1815. The implications of this are profound - no other writer on this subject has been able to confirm when the backsplat and H stretcher were introduced into the design of Lincolnshire chairs but this is firm date evidence.

The chair itself is made entirely out of ash wood, having a thick seat and of robust construction, weighing in at an impressive 15 pounds - this chair was made to last. The backsplat has a particularly pleasing design motif. The seat is flared towards the front to give more room to the front legs which leads to an elegant well-balanced design.

But the most outstanding discovery for me was that this collector had been lucky to purchase two of these chairs, in the same lot, from an auction house in Cumbria.

© William Sergeant 2018 and 2020

Lincolnshire medium bow back Windsor armchair probably William Taylor, with 3 quatrefoil and flea de lys pierced splat, 6 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarms, bell-shaped seat, ring and cove front leg turnings, plain back legs, crinoline stretcher WS 165

Lincolnshire medium bow back Windsor armchair probably William Taylor, with 3 quatrefoil and flea de lys pierced splat, 6 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarms, bell-shaped seat, ring and cove front leg turnings, plain back legs, crinoline stretcher WS 165

Shaped elm seat, two inches thick , chamfered under edges. Back support all ash wood except cherry splat . Eight short and six long spindles. Distinctive quatrefoil pattern on splat. Four blind square pins on back bow and five on the arm bow let in from the back.

Ash wood front legs with typical Lincolnshire ring and cove decoration, slightly shortened, one with evidence of torn fibres from cleaving blank. One plain ash back leg and one elm replacement leg and two elm replacement short stretchers. Ash crinoline stretcher. Weight : 13 ¼ lbs.

This chair was made by William Taylor, of that I have no doubt. If you look in Dr B D Cotton's The English Regional Chair (1990) at figure NE 28 on p. 118 you will see an identical chair which is signed Taylors Grantham. That is the stamp of William Taylor of Grantham. Also on the original rear leg there is an incised mark to show where the hole centre is to be drilled for the cross stretcher. I have only seen one chair with this constructional aid before and that is on chair WS 126 and if you look at that chair you will see that it is also signed Taylors Grantham.

© William Sergeant 2015 and 2020

Unstamped low bow back Lincolnshire Windsor armchair possibly by Thomas Simpson of Boston with 9 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarm supports, bell-shaped seat, ring and cove front leg turnings with lower ring, plain back legs, H stretcher with dart turning

WS 168 low bow back Windsor armchair possibly by Thomas Simpson of Boston 

I had seen this chair in Newark and on inspection I found there was no makers stamp but I was taken by its unusual form of having a low backbow. Even though I had not seen this design before I decided to leave it. On revisiting the shop several months later it was still there so I was able to negotiate a good deal and it joined my collection. I saw it as a challenge to see if I could work out who had made it. A thorough examination showed facets running along the length of the long spindles indicating that they had been made with a draw knife. I was even more intrigued to find out who the chairmaker was . Another feature was the fact that the two outside long spindles were secured in place by pins that had been driven right through the backbow and were visible from the front and back . This is a rare constructional technique as most makers only leave the pins showing at the back. 

A good indication of the maker is the dimensions of the seat as they used their own template over many years; on measuring this one and comparing the result with all the signed chairs that I have, only two came close . One of these had pins only showing from the back but the other had pins visible from both sides; could that maker have made this one as well? It was a chair that I have had for several years (WS 123) and while I was handling it I noticed for the first time that it too had short spindles shaped with a draw knife, not turned on a lathe. By closing my eyes and using my fingers to feel, the facets running up the spindles were obvious. These chairs surely had to have been made by the same maker. And the name of that maker is T SIMPSON of BOSTON . The only other chair by this maker that I have photographed but was not allowed to touch is in the  V&A and if you read the description of that chair it mentions that components of that chair were made with a draw knife as well. For more details on this maker then please read my notes on WS 123 - there were in fact 3 of them - Grandfather, father and son.

© William Sergeant 2018 and 2020

Leicestershire curved comb back Windsor armchair by William Rowe of Hallaton, with 14 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarms, bell shaped seat, ring and cove leg turnings, front and back, H stretcher with barrels

WS 170 Leicestershire curved comb back Windsor armchair by William Rowe of Hallaton

It is immediately obvious that whoever made this chair was well versed in his trade and could be considered to be a professional chairmaker. While I have not seen another chair quite like this one there are many pointers to where the maker learnt his trade. For instance, the bell shaped seat (in plan view) is just typical of what I would expect from a Lincolnshire maker as are the rings and cove decoration to the front legs. The seat appears to be made from ash and the rest of the chair from yew wood with spindles for back support - all point to an association to early Lincolnshire chairmakers circa 1800 - 1820.

Pictured below is the undercarriage of the chair.  Some features that point to a different influence of manufacture: one design element that appears and which I have never seen on a Lincolnshire chair is the elegant barrel-shaped lozenges on each of the three stretchers. Identical stretchers may be found on this East Anglian chair. The double ring design at the bottom of the legs is found on Mendlesham chairs and others associated with East Anglia.   - I have never seen these on a signed Lincolnshire chair. 

The back spindles being united with a top comb rail may lead some to think that this is a Lincolnshire trait, which is right as a design feature, but it would be wrong by the date, as these did not appear on early chairs but seem to become fashionable after 1835. The number of spindles in the back are 14 long and 8 short which would appear to be excessively high in total and would add nothing extra to its structural integrity; a typical example would be this chair by Amos that has 9 long and 8 short. The size and shape of the top comb is unique as far as I know as are the two outside long back spindles with their beautifully crafted lengths of different diameters. The fact that the two frontmost short spindles have been let through and wedged into the armbow points to superior craftsmanship and has only rarely been recorded before by me.  The final point to note is that the back spindles holes have been drilled right through the seat; the only Lincolnshire chairs that have this feature are those probably made by Joseph Newton of Fenton which are much earlier, dating from 1725 to 1750.  There are Nottinghamshire chairs recorded with this feature from the Retford and Rockley workshops, particularly associated with William Wheatland.

Finally I come to the name stamp - and I find this a real conundrum: most makers who their own name stamps used them with large letters either on the upper surface of the seat or on a side edge; these were put there with the expressed purpose of advertising their wares. The impressed mark of W Rowe is more typical of a retailer but I do not think this applies in this case. It could be easily explained by the fact that the name stamp is the same one used by Mr William Rowe to stamp his own tools in his chest to identify his possessions.

Research into this maker only shows he was recorded working in Hallaton in Leicestershire in the early 1840's. There is a John Rowe, chair turner in Pigot's 1835 Directory in Hallaton. William Rowe appears as chair maker in the 1841 Pigot's Directory. There are 2 William Rowes in the 1841 Poll Book for the Hundred of Gartree which included Hallaton. There are 3 William Rowes in the 1841 census in Hallaton, one a shoemaker aged 55, one a grazier aged 80 and one aged 65 'of independent means'.

He may well have had a business employing several journeymen, as did the Lincolnshire chairmakers, and one of them could have made this chair after learning his trade as an apprentice somewhere in East Anglia and incorporating the design features common to that area. Alternatively, it may be found after more research that it was Mr Rowe who originally came from EA and learnt his trade there. It may be possible to unravel this dichotomy with time and research in the archives.

Below is a picture of the edge of the seat of this chair, clearly showing the impressed name of W ROWE. There are two impressions on this side, one of which is upside down; there is one on the other edge the right way up. It is more like a tool stamp - unlike the larger ones that the Lincolnshire chairmakers used. To date this is the only stamped chair that has been recorded by this maker.

W Rowe stamp

This chair appears at NE 114 on page 135 of Dr B D Cotton's The English Regional Chair (1990).  I did not take these pictures as this chair has been in the USA for the last 40 years. Some time ago while I was talking chairs with Bill Cotton, I expressed a desire to see this chair. That's when Bill told me that it had been taken overseas many years ago. He did remember that a dealer in Burford sold it and gave me his name; I used the internet to try and track him down but with no success, so I just contacted the antique dealers in Burford until I found one who knew where the original dealer was and gave me his contact details.  I tracked this gentleman down in his retirement home on the South Coast and he remembered selling the chair to an American serviceman and as luck would have it he still had some contact details for him. So after some more hunting around on the internet I eventually made contact with the owner of this chair. He was very pleased to hear of my interest in it and after a short while some photographs that his grand daughter had taken arrived as email attachments - and what a wonderful revelation they were! Many thanks to Del Francis in California for allowing me to use these pictures of his chair; they make a very exciting contribution to the understanding of the vernacular chair making in Eastern England.

© William Sergeant 2014 and 2020

Gillows perspectives

The sketch on the right comes from Susan Stuart's article in the Journal of The Regional Furniture Society (2010) More about Gillows’ Windsor and Common Chairs  captioned: "A high back Windsor chair painted green, ash with deal spindles. Made by Joseph Wilcock, December 1806. Westminister Archive Centre 344/ 99, fol. 1804".

There are one or two other sketches of Gillows' Windsors which survive and they all seem to have this slightly curious 'bird's eye' view and I've never understood quite why they were drawn this way. Then I came across the photo on the left in the Courtyard Antiques sold archive.  The similarity is striking and rather pleasing.

Unstamped medium bow back Lincolnshire Windsor armchair, crook underarm supports, 6 long spindles, 2 x 4 underarm spindles, ring and cove front leg turnings with single lower ring & plain back legs, crinoline stretcher

WS 137 Lincolnshire Windsor bow back armchair

Well crafted and full of understated elegance - a typical early nineteenth century Lincolnshire windsor chair - but we do not know who made it. The outstanding feature of this chair is the quatrefoil motif in the splat; they are rarely seen. The seat and most of the components are made from ash, the splat probably from fruitwood. However the two steam bent bows are made from a wood that I am not familiar with and could even have been constructed from hazel. This chair is in the collection of Brian Gray.

I have made the bold statement that this is a Lincolnshire Windsor chair, even though it does not have a makers stamp on it to verify where it was made. I have been asked many times how I know if a chair was made in Lincolnshire and after giving some talks to groups of people this year my thoughts have focused on answering that question. The first reason I am so confident I am able to recognise them is that I have handled a significant number of signed chairs and a pattern emerges that is common to all Lincolnshire chairs. Always remember that the chairmaker has left his finger prints over every component, whether on purpose or not (these could be explicit or implicit features).

The first most obvious feature that can be spotted at some distance is the design of the legs, namely a ring and cove on the front legs (later to become just two rings) and plain back legs, tapered towards both ends. The lack of decoration on the back legs just typifies the frugal attitude these makers had to the manufacture of their chairs to remain competitive with other chairmakers. On the front leg the ring design tends to be small whereas the cove is flat and elongated (made with a gouge chisel rather than a nail chisel).

The next pointer I look for is the seat - I reckon that at least 85% of signed Lincolnshire chairs have seats made from the ash tree (the other 15% are made from elm). The early makers used flaired seats to get the front legs further apart and I have yet to see a Lincolnshire chair with the legs let right through seat (a common practice on Thames Valley chairs).

The design of the back splat holds no interest to me at all - I have not come across any association of the fretted design with the maker. However, it appears to me that all the Lincolnshire makers made spindle backed chairs with no splat but where there is a splat it is let through the back bow, not let into the front of the bow that is so very common on the southern chairs. I have yet to see a Lincolnshire chair with a roundel or cartwheel motif on the splat though I believe ones may exist.

Chairs from other regions usually have a scribe mark on the backbow and sometimes around the edge of the seat; I would not expect to see such decoration on a Lincolnshire chair - remember the word to describe these chairs is frugal with no unnecessary decoration.

Finally the most telling design feature that distinguishes East Midlands chairs from their southern counterparts is the joint where the backbow meets the arm bow: Lincolnshire makers tapered the back bow like the sharpening of a pencil whereas the Thames Valley makers seemed invariably to have been taught to cut a square shoulder which sits on the arm bow  Its always the first point that catches my eye whenever I come across a new chair to inspect.

A fuller discussion of what distinguishes a Lincolnshire chair from a Nottinghamshire chair or a Thames Valley one, written several years after I made these observations, may be found here.

© William Sergeant 2014 & 2019

John Amos, high bow back Lincolnshire Windsor armchair with 3-piercing fleur de lys upper splat, single pierced lower splat, 6 long spindles, 8 short, crook underarm supports, crinoline stretcher, 5 ring then ball then 3 ring turning w lower ring & cove, plain back, straight seat sides

WS 131 John Amos, Grantham

What a fine example of an original Grantham Windsor chair.

A word on splats: I have found absolutely no connection between the maker and the fretted design on Lincolnshire chairs. So much so that on inspection of a new chair I do not even look at the splat or its design. The pattern shown here appears in a similar form on all stamped makers chairs. However , there is a little feature that I have noticed on this chair which I believe may be peculiar to Amos. If you look at the top section of the splat, at the bottom of the two long vertical frets there are two tear drops , connected by a small gap. I have only seen this on Amos chairs and could be a design feature specific to him. If any one has come across that else where then please let me know. For another splat from another Amos chair please see figure TBS2 on p. 105 of Dr D B Cotton's The English Regional Chair (1990).

© William Sergeant 2019