In hope of warm, sunny weather this month, we have chosen this folding chair for Chair of the Month in July. The cane seat means it was lightweight for transporting, and the folding design and reclining pose made it suitable for relaxing in the garden or on the deck of a ship.
This chair is part of the stored collection at Wycombe Museum. Look out in the coming months for details of exciting plans to make more of the museum’s stored collection available to visitors.
June’s chair of the month is this joined chair made in South Lancashire or Cheshire 1685-1720, at least 100 years before High Wycombe’s Windsor chair making industry was established.
Joined chairs are made by fixing the wood together with joints such as mortice and tenons. Windsor chairs use turned, stick-like back and leg parts that are fixed into holes in the seat. See our article What Is A Windsor Chair? for more about on Windsor chairs.
Most of the chairs held by Wycombe Museum are from the High Wycombe area, but a few, like this one, are from other English chair making regions. Each chair making region shares design and making characteristics. Find out more about Reginal Furniture with the Regional Furniture Society.
Museum staff are in the process of adding chair records to Wycombe Museum’s selection of online records with the help of funding from the Regional Furniture Society. This chair is one of the new additions. You can search the records at the link below.
Chair of the month for May is this smoker’s bow Windsor chair made by Stephen Hazell in Oxford.
Smoker’s bow chairs are a type of low-backed Windsor chair and probably got their name because the arms are the perfect height to support the elbows of someone smoking a pipe.
Most of the chairs held by Wycombe Museum are from the High Wycombe area, but a few, like this one, are from the wider Chilterns / Thames Valley area – one of the six main chair making regions of England. Each chair making region shares design and making characteristics. Find out more about Regional Furniture with the RFS link in the blue box below.
Museum staff are in the process of adding chair records to Wycombe Museum’s selection of online records with the help of funding from the Regional Furniture Society. This chair is one of the new additions. You can search the records below.
Chair of the Month for April is a type of Windsor chair known as a lath back kitchen chair.
The back is partly made up of thin, flat strips of wood, known as laths. Large, comfortable high-backed Windsor chairs like this were often used as fireside chairs in cottage and farmhouse kitchens. This one was made by Henry Jeffkins Ltd in 1904 in the Frogmoor area of High Wycombe. It can be seen in the Chair Lab, part of Wycombe Museum’s recently updated chair galleries.
Museum staff are in the process of adding chair records to Wycombe Museum’s selection of online records with the help of funding from the Regional Furniture Society. This chair is one of the new additions. You can search the records at the link below.
Chair of the Month for March is even smaller than last month’s Chair of the Month!
It’s a miniature chair about 6cm high, made by High Wycombe manufacturer Nicholls and Janes in 1922. It’s a duplicate of the furniture set they made for the Queen Mary Doll’s House, which is displayed at Windsor Castle.
Nicholls and Janes took over the buildings of Widgington’s, the first factory in High Wycombe, and number 3 of the 8 sites on our ‘Here, Chair & Everywhere’ heritage walking trail. See Chairmaking Town Trail • Wycombe Museum for more information on the trail and to download a guide.
The guide includes more information on Nicholls and Janes, Widgington and other important town centre furniture sites. Look out for the new trail boards in town, including the former Nicholls and Janes site near Bucks New University.
Chair of the Month is a partnership between Wycombe Museum and the Regional Furniture Society.
Our Chair of the Month for February is this beautiful child’s chair made in Rockley, Nottinghamshire around 1835-1850. It is just 68cm high and is made from yew, elm and ash woods. At first glance it looks very like Windsor chairs from the High Wycombe area. Without the ‘Nicholson Rockley’ stamp behind the seat, how could we know that it was not local to High Wycombe? There are some design differences to look out for.
The easiest to spot is that with chairs from Nottinghamshire, the bow back (curved back piece) tapers before it joins the arm or seat. In chairs from High Wycombe, it doesn’t. Compare this chair to our Chair of the Month from October 2024 to see what we mean.
Learn more about how to identify locally made Windsor chairs as well as other ‘Chair Expert’ tips in Wycombe Museum’s recently upgraded Chair Galleries.
Chair of the Month for January is not actually a chair, but a template for making chair backs. It was used by the factory of Piercey Biggs and Rackstraw of Desborough of High Wycombe, and it has a label that includes a sketch of the complete chair design together with measurements and instructions for making the chair.
Piercey Biggs and Rackstraw made reproduction antique furniture until they closed in about 1996. Several Wycombe companies were known for making furniture inspired by antiques. Frederick Parker even built up a large collection of antiques for his company to copy and adapt. His collection survived and is now looked after by London Metropolitan University.
This chair template can be seen in The Art of the Chair Exhibition at Wycombe Museum until 2 February 2025. The exhibition includes other chair designs from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Chair of the Month is a partnership between Wycombe Museum wycombemuseum.org.uk and the Regional Furniture Society.
Chair of the Month for December is this church chair. It was made for Birmingham Cathedral by Glenisters of High Wycombe in about 1865. It has a book rack, hassock (kneeler) rack, hat, and umbrella rack.
This chair can be seen in the Chair Lab, in the chair galleries at Wycombe Museum
Chair of the Month for November was made by Robert Prior of Uxbridge, around 1820-1840. It is one of a set of five – one armchair and four ‘side’ chairs. They all have triple splats with Prince of Wales feather designs, and all use best yew-wood with elm seats.
This chair can be seen in the Art Gallery at Wycombe Museum.
Watch this space for news on our planned new chair store which will be open to visitors to explore.
Chair of the Month for October is the Jessop Chair.
It is a typical Wycombe-made Wheelback Windsor chair, made in about 1840. It has an elm seat, beech legs and ash bow. Unusually, it has a label under the seat with the retailer’s name – A Jessop. Ann Jessop was a retailer based in Sheffield in the 1840s. This char is one of many that was made in High Wycombe but sold much further away. Traveling salesmen, took chairs on heavily laden wagons from Wycombe factories to shops and retailers in the midlands and north.
This chair can be seen in the history galleries at Wycombe Museum. It is Object 8 in ‘A History of Wycombe in 10 Objects’.
Regional Furniture Society 
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