Rush-seated Dales chair with 3 spindles between back bars, straight back poles and front legs (which are slightly higher than the seat), regional turnery device on front stretcher, double side stretchers

WS 156 Rush-seated Dales chair

This chair came with the Clissett type chairs so in effect I got four chairs for the price of three. I recognised it as what Cotton describes in his book as a "Dales" chair from the Lancashire/Cumbria region. There were several features that struck me about this chair as it was probably the first time that I had handled one of these chairs. I was initial surprised how heavy it was along with being very well made. It is all ash construction with its original rush seat that had been painted a dark brown colour.

The two horizontal rails securing the upright turned back spindles are not turned but flattened and rectangular in section. You will notice that the front legs terminate just above the seat level - a feature that I never associate with the Lincolnshire rush seated chairs.

For similar chairs, see Dr B D Cotton The English Regional Chair (1990) NW 30, NW 31 and NW 32, p.330.

© William Sergeant 2019

Glasgow pattern joined armchair with curved top rail, central shaped cross splat, scrolled arms, shaped underarms fixed into side rails, dyked board seat, stretchers x 4, inner & rear tapered legs

WS 144 Scottish joined armchair, Glasgow pattern 

If you thought this site was going to entirely devoted to Lincolnshire chairs then you may be disappointed - or perhaps pleasantly surprised.  This chair was most probably made north of Glasgow & Edinburgh, in lowland Scotland.

How do I know that, I hear you say? Well, just look at the wood of the broad curved top rail, the centrally placed cross splat (with both upward and downward shaping) and the right hand curved back upright are made out of - they contain dark heart wood and light yellow sapwood.   Only one wood like that: Laburnum! There was a strong and well-recorded tradition of the use of Cytisus alpinus (also Laburnum alpinum) from the late 1700s in lowland Perthshire. Also the seat is counter sunk into the rails - known as a dyked seat - and you can just make out the 45° degree angle the corner of the seat board is cut at the top of the legs tapered on the inner and rear faces; both are Scottish traditions.  The scrolled arms and curved underarm supports, fitted to the side seat rails are made from elm and the seat boards from oak. Front and rear stretchers are set higher than those at the sides.

For further examples of these Glasgow pattern chairs, see Dr B D Cotton Scottish Vernacular Furniture (Thames & Hudson 2008) pp.178-188.

I happened across this wonderful piece of vernacular furniture at the Stamford Antique centre described as a yew wood country chair.

© William Sergeant 2019

Lincolnshire rush-seated ladder back side chair: straight back uprights with tapered feet & flattened top finials; 4 ladders with lower indented shaping; turned tapered front legs lower ring morticed into the seat frame, with rushing bars; front stretcher with turnery not from Lincolnshire, double side & rear stretchers

WS 52 Lincolnshire rush-seated ladder back side chair

I bought this one at the auction house in Market Harborough: take a good look and you will see that the front stretcher doesn't look right. There was other rush seated chairs at the same auction consigned from the same vendor with the same front stretcher but not from Lincolnshire. I think this chair had its original stretcher broken and one was robbed off the other chairs. There is a similarity in construction marks to WS 87, WS 70, WS 54 and WS 37.

©William Sergeant 2019

Lincolnshire rush-seated ladder back side chair, straight back uprights with tapering feet terminating in a plain narrow stay rail with 4 plain domed ladders, straight front legs with reduced pad feet morticed into the seat frame, front stretcher with turnery often found in Lincolnshire, double rear and side stretchers

WS 37 Lincolnshire rush-seated ladder back side chair

Lincolnshire rush seated chairs are usually made to the most utilitarian design, just one step up from a stool but take a close look at these front legs: the person who turned them was skilled in design and manufacture; the rings, coves and quirks are crisply executed with the pad feet expertly made. Local vernacular furniture with more than a hint of sophistication.

There is similarity in the construction marks on this chair to WS 87, WS 70, WS 54 and WS 52.

©William Sergeant 2019

Lincolnshire rush-seated ladder back rocking side chair, straight back uprights with tapering feet flattened top finials; 4 ladders (1 missing) with lower indented shaping; turned front legs with pad feet morticed into the seat frame, with rushing bars; front stretcher with turnery found in Lincolnshire, double side & rear stretchers

WS 42 Lincolnshire rush-seated ladder back rocking chair

WS 43 detail of front stretcher of Lincolnshire rush-seated ladder back rocking chair

Of surprisingly small proportions but not a child's chair, in excellent condition except that it's missing the lowest ladder (there should be 4 not 3 as shown) with original rushing and seat edge trims. The front stretcher is like no other I have seen but a cracking little bit of rural Lincolnshire furniture none the less.  The front stretcher turning may also be seen on WS 70.

©William Sergeant 2019

Bar top Lincolnshire rush-seated side chair, straight back uprights with tapering feet terminating in a plain narrow stay rail with 4 plain domed ladders, straight front legs with reduced pad feet morticed into the seat frame, front stretcher with turnery often found in Lincolnshire, double rear and side stretchers

WS 70 Bar top Lincolnshire rush-seated ladder back side chair

Another chair from the collection of John Boden, in lovely condition and very similar to chair NE211 on p.158 of Dr B D Cotton's The English Regional Chair (1990). One of a dining set of 4 side chairs and 2 carvers. The front stretcher is closer in design to chair WS 42 than any of the other Lincolnshire chairs.  There is a similarity in construction marks to WS 87, WS 54, WS 52 and WS 37.

©William Sergeant 2019

Bar top Lincolnshire rush-seated ladder back side chair, straight back uprights with decorative shaped stay rail with lower indented design, 4 ladders, same lower indent, straight front legs with reduced pad feet morticed into the seat frame, front stretcher with turnery often found in Lincolnshire, double rear and side stretchers

WS 87 Bar top Lincolnshire rush-seated ladder back side chair

This model of chair was recorded by Dr B D Cotton on p.157 of The English Regional Chair (1990): they are not at all common and I was so pleased to find this example at the Newark Antiques Fair. It's in good condition with recent professional re-rushing but lacking its seat edge strips.

One of the benefits of collecting these Lincolnshire chairs is that after gathering a number together it is possible to see similarities emerging; there are are little construction marks that are only apparent on very close inspection and they appear on this chair along with numbers WS 54, WS 52, WS 37 and WS 70 . There is good evidence that they came out of the same workshop.

© William Sergeant 2019

Three Lincolnshire rush-seated ladder back chairs compared:

WS 196: L-R WS 11, WS 195 and WS 59 side by side

Firstly, an apology for the slightly unsophisticated picture but it will serve to illustrate the point that I want to make.

The middle one is of a pair which appears at No 195; the RHS of the three is by far the most common Lincolnshire rush seated chair that I see: they have the appearance of being made in the first half of the 19th century; there is a pair on this site at No 59, many of which have a provenance back to the south of the county and I am certain that they were made by the Spikins families in Boston and Spalding. The LHS appears at No 11.  I have a provenance from the previous owner that goes back nearly a century and is associated with the Sleaford area. I just wonder if it was made in that town by the family of Hugh and Ann Mason. I know of only one other and that is in a village near to Spilsby.

It is immediately obvious that the front stretcher of each is identical and the pattern of the other stretchers is the same. The front legs are similar but have notable differences to make them distinct from each other. The middle one has only three back supports and the whole is strengthened by a top rail. These are the explicit design features that suggest a local pattern. What is not visible from the above picture are the implicit construction marks. All of them are exactly the same in having shallow incised rings to the back legs to aid in the drilling of the holes and all the back supports are morticed into the back legs and secured with thin metal pins. I have no doubt that the makers of these chairs were all apprenticed to workshops in the county of Lincolnshire and there they learned the same techniques for manufacturing this pattern of a chair while placing their own individual subtle design features.

© William Sergeant 2019

Lincolnshire rush-seated ladder back side chair: straight back uprights with tapered feet & flattened top finials; 4 ladders with lower indented shaping, top ladder damaged; straight front legs morticed into the seat frame, with rushing bars; front stretcher with turnery often found in Lincolnshire, double side & rear stretchers

WS 11 Lincolnshire rush-seated ladder back side chair

This one turned up recently (March 2012) at a local auction house described as an early 20th century Arts and Craft chair - I could see by the photo published on the internet that it was a Lincolnshire chair and when I was able to handle it and inspect it closely everything was right about it . It was at the time I found it the only one I had seen with straight front legs and it does not appear in Dr B D Cotton's The English Regional Chair (1990). The top ladder at the back is missing a piece. This chair is compared with two others at No 196.

© William Sergeant 2019

Lincolnshire rush-seated bar top ladder back side chair: straight back uprights with tapered feet & flattened stay rail fixed onto prominent button turnings; 3 plain domed ladders; straight turned front legs with tulip-shaped feet, morticed into the seat frame, with rushing bars; front stretcher with turnery often found in Lincolnshire, double side & rear stretchers

WS 195 Bar top rush-seated ladder back side chair

My thanks must go to James Drake, a fellow chair collector, who was kind enough to inform me about some rush-seated chairs that were being offered for sale at Gildings auctioneers in June 2018 at Market Harborough. I was able to look at an image online and decided that they were worth bidding for - there were four chairs in the lot, a pair of bar top as above, one the same as No 59 on this site and a Lancashire wavy back chair. There was only one bid, which was mine, so I managed to secure them for the princely sum of £10 plus commission.

In all my years of collecting these Lincolnshire rush-seated chairs, I have never come across these bar topped examples, indeed there is only a single image of this type in all the published literature that I am aware of, but I am in no doubt that they were produced in the county.  This chair is compared with two others at No 196.

© William Sergeant 2019

1

 

Ladder back side chair with bar top, from Leicester house clearance, same front stretcher as No. 2, No. 3 & No. 7, with the same implicit constructional markings. Probably from South Lincolnshire.

3

 

Ladder back side chair with very old rushing, provenanced to the Sleaford area, so could have been produced in the workshop of Hugh Mason before 1825, or by his wife, Anne, who succeeded him.

5

Rush seated side chair with a provenance to Market Rasen, mid 1800’s, with its original rushing. Unusual in the fact that it has vertical spindles incorporated into the back support.

9

Rush seated ladder back chair with the same provenance, and from the same house, as chair No 7.