Chair of the month for December is this Wheelback Windsor armchair, made in the High Wycombe area, about 1800-1830. Made from various local woods, including cherry wood, elm, ash, beech and yew.
By the early 1800s, Windsor chair making had become centred on High Wycombe. Wheelback Windsor chairs like this one were made in large numbers. The various timbers have been carefully chosen for the chair part that suits it best. For example, cherry and yew woods are used decoratively on the front legs and in the centre of the wheel in the back. Elm is used for the seat because it was available in wide planks and has an attractive grain pattern. The bow (hoop) is made from ash which bends well without splitting. The back legs are made from beech, which was cheaper and more readily available than cherry wood.
This chair is on display in Wycombe Museum’s ‘Our Place Exhibition’ until 10 March 2024. Information about Wycombe Museum’s exhibitions can be found here Exhibitions | Wycombe Museum Official Site
Chair of the Month is a partnership between Wycombe Museum wycombemuseum.org.uk and the Regional Furniture Society regional furnituresociety.org
November’s chair of the month is this ‘Q – Stack’ chair, designed by Robin Day of High Wycombe in about 1953 and manufactured by Hille in London.
In the 1950s, new ways of constructing chairs were made possible by new materials such as plastic, plywood and tubular steel. This chair uses plywood, with tubular steel legs held on by two bolts. It has a hand grip in the back, so that it can be easily carried. Unlike traditional chairs, several of these chairs can be stacked on top of each other when not being used. It was designed as a low-cost space-saver for meeting places, cafes, halls, and homes.
It is currently on display in Wycombe Museum’s Chair Galleries.
Chair of the Month is a partnership between Wycombe Museum wycombemuseum.org.uk and the Regional Furniture Society regional furnituresociety.org
Members may be interested in the following BIFMO-FHS online course on Zoom:
1 November: 5 pm – 7.30 pm (GMT) and 1 pm – 3.30 pm (EDT) 8, 15, 22 and 29 November: 5 pm – 7.30 pm (GMT) and 12 noon – 2.30 pm (EST) Please note that for the first week, the start time for US ticketholders on the East Coast will be four hours behind the UK. Thereafter, the time difference will be five hours.
Join us online for a couple of hours every Wednesday throughout November, when curators and historians will consider the development of styles in Britain, from the seventeenth to the mid-twentieth century, by examining the creative process involved in making furniture. Speakers will look at how designs were devised and the impact of collaboration between different disciplines on the way concepts and ideas were realised and translated into objects.
Guided by specialist speakers, the course will look at a wide range of examples of design and craftsmanship from almost 500 years of furniture making in Britain; from the influence of print designs on makers in the early seventeenth century to the mass-produced furniture of Charles and Ray Eames in the twentieth.
Here’s an overview of the course programme:
Session 1 – 1st November
Early print sources and their influence on furniture makers
Speakers: Nick Humphrey, Catherine Doucette, Dr Amy Lim.
Session 2 – 8th November
Furniture makers interpreting design in the 18th century
Speakers: Katherine Hardwick, Annabelle Westman, Dr Megan Aldrich.
Session 3 – 15th November
Furniture makers, Designers and Architects in 18th century Britain
Speakers: Dr John Cross, Professor Jeremy Howard, Dr Kerry Bristol.
Session 4 – 22nd November
Stretching the imagination: furniture making in the 19th century
Speakers: Ellinor Gray, Dr Diana Davis, Clarissa Ward.
Session 5 – 29th November
Innovation and modernity: the role of the designer in the 20th century
Speakers: William Lorimer, Matthew Winterbottom, Professor Pat Kirkham.
Tickets may be bought for individual sessions or for the entire course, but you will benefit from a discount if all 5 sessions are bought together. Don’t worry if you cannot attend the sessions live because they will be recorded and links to the recording will be sent to ticketholders.
For further information and to purchase tickets please click here to travel straight to the Eventbrite page. FHS members and ECD members will receive a discount on all tickets. If you have any questions, please contact Ann Davies at bifmo@furniturehistorysociety.org.
Banqueting Hall at Penkill, Ayrshire, William Bell Scott and Alice Boyd, oil on board, by Arthur Hughes, 1892
On Friday 1 December, the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh is hosting an all-day seminar on The Scottish Interior. Ten speakers will address the Scottishness – or otherwise – of Scottish interiors from the sixteenth century to the present day, examining craftsmanship, patronage, collecting, and identity. The event is free and lunch will be provided (courtesy of the Paul Mellon Centre) but booking is essential. Details can be found here.
Chair of the Month for October is the Wycombe Pitt Chair, a Windsor armchair made by John Pitt in the 1740s. It is made from beech with walnut arm-bow, fruitwood legs and elm seat. The maker of this early Windsor chair was John Pitt, wheel maker and Windsor chair maker. He lived in the hamlet of Upton-cum-Chalvey, which is now part of Slough. The chair is painted with the coat of arms of the City of Bath. Upton-Cum-Chalvey was on the main road from London to Bath.
The Wycombe Pitt chair was bought for the museum with the help of The Art Fund, The V&A Purchase Fund and The Beecroft Bequest.
An article about John Pitt was published by the Regional Furniture Society in 2005. You can read it here.
You can see this chair in Wycombe Museum’s ‘Our Place Exhibition’, until 10 March 2024. Information about Wycombe Museum’s exhibitions can be found here Exhibitions | Wycombe Museum Official Site
Chair of the Month is a partnership between Wycombe Museum wycombemuseum.org.uk and the Regional Furniture Society regional furnituresociety.org
The Furniture Makers’ Company is pleased to announce the launch of a new online catalogue of the Frederick Parker chair collection. This unique collection of 191 British chairs dating from the 1670s to 2015 has now been researched, assessed and digitally photographed, to complete the first comprehensive catalogue of the collection. The chairs are fully described in a clear and accessible format suitable for students, historians and anyone interested in furniture history.
The collection was formed mainly in the early 20th century by furniture makers Frederick Parker & Sons, to provide a resource of antique styles suitable for reproduction. As the demand for reproduction furniture declined in the mid-century, the collection became redundant and in 1997 it was saved from disposal by the formation of a trust, the Frederick Parker Foundation, which was able to raise the funds to purchase a significant number of the chairs. The collection is now owned by the Furniture Makers and is on long-term loan to London Metropolitan University, with many of the chairs on display and the rest in controlled storage, accessible for study. Further chairs, especially of the late 20th century, have been added to show a coherent progression of English chairmaking from the 17th century to the present day.
The chair collection is complemented by the Frederick Parker and Parker Knoll Archive, also owned by the Furniture Makers and on loan to the university, providing a fascinating record of 150 years of furniture production.
We encourage visitors, especially students in design, making and upholstery, to make use of this unique learning resource. The online chair catalogue now enables people to study the collection remotely and we hope it will inspire further research and new directions in design and manufacture.
The chair collection catalogued can be accessed here.
September is back-to-school month! Combined school desk and chair, made in 1909. Unlike most of the artefacts at Wycombe Museum, it wasn’t made locally. It was made by Geo. M. Hammer and Co, of The Strand in London.
House of The Binns; image: National Trust for Scotland
A family home founded by Thomas Dalyell about 1612, an Edinburgh merchant who made his fortune at the court of King James VI and I in London. Presented to the National Trust for Scotland in 1947 by Eleanor (Nora) Dalyell, mother of the late MP Tam Dalyell. The family retain the right to live there. Much altered and extended in the 18th and 19th century, the house contains an eclectic mix of furniture and works of art from all eras, including political and military memorabilia, associated with its more colourful owners, including General Tam Dalyell who escaped from the Tower of London and fought alongside Peter the Great’s father in Russia.
Kathleen Dalyell and Helen Knox, NTS Manager will be our hosts whilst David Jones has kindly agreed to guide us through the furniture.
Coffee will be provided on arrival. At the end of the visit a nearby venue for lunch will be suggested (not included in the fee). If you are a member of the National Trust or Scottish National Trust, please remember your membership card. If numbers exceed 12, we may need to progress in two parties.
Linlithgow is easily reached from Glasgow or Edinburgh by train. Members with cars will pick up travellers from the station.
If you wish to join the visit, a cheque for £10 a head, payable to Regional Furniture Society should be posted to : RFS Events Organiser, 2 Grove Cottages, Sutherland Road London W4 2QS together with a list of members and friends attending and a mobile telephone number. Alternatively, make a bank transfer to the RFS sort code 30-94-81 a/c 00882432 quoting reference: ‘Binns’, followed by an email to the events organiser, confirming the names of those attending, mobile number and the date of the bank transfer. Closing date for applications is Monday September 4th.
As members may be aware, a tour of the Southern States of America is planned for October 2024, studying the regional furniture, houses and social context of early settlers, later migrants, farmers and tradespeople, plantation owners and slaves during the 18th and 19th centuries.
We will be guided by Dan Ackerman, Chief Curator and Director of Research at MESDA and RFS American Secretary, whose specialist knowledge in this area is based on many years of academic research and fieldwork.
The tour will be over 11 days from Monday 14 October to Thursday 24 October, with flights to and from Charlotte International airport, and starting at MESDA (Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts) and Old Salem Museum in North Carolina, heading north to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, then east to Colonial Williamsburg and from there south down the coast to Charleston, South Carolina, before returning to MESDA. The tour dates are such that if any of us wanted to stay on for the biennial MESDA furniture seminar, which will be on Friday 25 to Saturday 26 October, it would be simple to do so.
The provisional itinerary is attached below.
We provisionally estimate the cost at £2,500 per person, including flights, accommodation (based on 2 people per room), admissions and insurance etc, but not including lunches and dinners, which will be paid for as we go.
If you are interested in joining the tour, please email events.RFS@gmail.com by 15 September 2023. Those members who have already been in touch about the tour need not respond to this call: you are already on the list.
David Dewing, tour organiser
Provisional Itinerary
Flights from UK to Charlotte International airport, arriving Monday October 14 Tour over 11 days (10 nights) Depart Charlotte International Airport, Thursday October 24 Option to stay Friday and Saturday 25-26 for the biennial MESDA Furniture Seminar
Day 1: Monday October 14
Transfer from Charlotte to MESDA and Old Salem Museums, North Carolina, 84 miles Welcome, introduction and first supper Stay 2 nights MESDA, Monday and Tuesday
Period Room at MESDA (Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts)
Day 2: Tuesday October 15
MESDA and Old Salem Museums, sites and collections Research and Conservation facilities
Miksch House, Old Salem
Day 3: Wednesday October 16
Travel from MESDA to Harrisonburg, Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, 215 miles Frontier Culture Museum (Staunton, Virginia) Stay 2 nights, Harrisonburg, Wednesday and Thursday
Day 4: Thursday, October 17
Shenandoah Valley Collections Museum of the Shenandoah Valley Two Winchester-area private collections Jeff and Beverley Evans Collection (Dinner)
Frontier Culture Museum, Staunton, Shenandoah Valley, Virginia
Day 5: Friday, October 18
Travel from Harrisonburg to Williamsburg, Virginia, 180 miles Monticello en route, home of Robert Jefferson, house, gardens and slave quarters Stay 2 nights, Williamsburg, Friday and Saturday
Monticello, Virginia
Colonial Williamsburg
Day 6: Saturday, October 19
Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg Williamsburg houses and sites Research and conservation facilities
Conservation Workshops Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia
Day 7: Sunday October 20
Travel to from Williamsburg to Edenton, North Carolina, 111 miles Cupola House Private Collections
Stay 1 night, Edenton, Sunday
Cupola House, Edenton, North Carolina
Day 8: Monday October 21
Travel from Edenton to Wilmington, North Carolina, 177 miles Free time in Wilmington Stay 1 night, Wilmington, Monday
Roanoke River Lighthouse, Edenton
Day 9: Tuesday, October 22
Travel from Wilmington to Charleston, South Carolina, 176 miles Drayton Hall plantation house en route Stay 2 nights, Charleston, Tuesday and Wednesday
Drayton Hall, South Carolina
Day 10: Wednesday October 23
Charleston houses and museums
Nathanial Russel House
Charleston Museum
St. Michaels Church
Slave Mart Museum
Edmonton Alston House, Charleston
Nathaniel Russel House
Day 11: Thursday October 24
Return from Charleston to Charlotte airport, 211 miles Optional: Continue to MESDA for the Furniture Seminar, Friday and Saturday October 25-27
We hope that August brings us good weather and the free time to take a seat and relax in the open air. However, damp or dirty outdoor seats can be a problem, especially in the UK. This chair was designed to solve that problem – just turn it upside-down and you would always have a dry seat to sit on! The mystery about this chair though is the date. Is it 18th century, like so many other Windsor garden chairs? It has so many layers of old paint, this seems likely. Or was it made more recently? Chairs like this were patented in 1906. A conservator viewed the chair in 2009 and thought it could be of either date. What do you think?
Regional Furniture Society 
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