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

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 20^th 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 20^th century, have been added to show a coherent progression of English chairmaking from the 17^th 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. 

This is the archive link.

For information about the Frederick Parker collection and archive, and to arrange a visit, please contact us at specialcollections@londonmet.ac.uk

David Dewing

September 2023

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. 

Chair of the Month is a partnership between Wycombe Museum and the Regional Furniture Society.

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 18^th 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?

Chair of the Month is a partnership between Wycombe Museum and the Regional Furniture Society.

This low stool was used by several generations of chair seat caners, between about 1870 and 1950. During this time, caning seats was a job mainly done by women. Workers needed a low stool to work comfortably. This stool like a Windsor chair without the back. The last woman to use the stool was Mrs Rolph, who lived in Bowerdean Road, High Wycombe.

To see an example of a chair with a caned seat, see our Chair of the Month for March 2023. 

To find out more about women’s work in chair seat making and other Chilterns crafts, visit the museum’s exhibition Hidden Hands, on until 10 September 2023 Hidden Hands: Women and Work in the Chilterns | Wycombe Museum Official Site. You may also be interested in the talk ‘Chairmaking, A Cottage Industry’ Talk: Chairmaking as a Cottage Industry | Wycombe Museum Official Site. 

Chair of the Month is a partnership between Wycombe Museum and the Regional Furniture Society.

It was made in High Wycombe, probably at Walter Skull’s factory in the 1870s. 

The workers who made the rush seats were known as ‘matters’. Before the 1880s, when local women could still find work as lace makers, most chair seat matters were men. As the hand-made lace industry declined, women began to make rush seats, and from around 1880 onwards, most matters were women.

This chair can be seen in the Hidden Hands exhibition at Wycombe Museum until 10 September. There is a lot more information about chair matting and other Chilterns crafts done by women in the exhibition.

Chair of the Month is a partnership between Wycombe Museum and the Regional Furniture Society.

Chair of the month for May is this child’s Coronation chair.

It was made by George Arthur Lane of High Wycombe in 1953 to mark the Coronation of Elizabeth II. George worked for Parker Knoll in High Wycombe and made this chair in his own time. It can be seen in the chair galleries at Wycombe Museum.

The Coronation Chair was 3D scanned for Wycombe Museum by the volunteer and staff team at The National Paralympic Heritage Trust. The images below show the production process.

Click this link to see the 3-D scan.

Chair of the Month is a partnership between Wycombe Museum and the Regional Furniture Society. 

This oversized chair was made by Edwin Skull of High Wycombe in 1876. It was used by prime minister Benjamin Disraeli at the Junior Carlton Club, London, and was still in use at the club until 1978. 19 April marks the anniversary of Disraeli’s death, known as ‘Primrose Day’. Disraeli lived at Hughenden Manor, just outside High Wycombe, now owned by The National Trust. Disraeli is the first and only British Prime Minister of Jewish descent.

This chair can be seen in at Wycombe Museum, together with other items relating to Disraeli including portraits, and the carved Red Lion next to which Disraeli gave his first political speech.  

Chair of the Month is a partnership between Wycombe Museum and the Regional Furniture Society.