Chair of the Month for March is this bedroom chair with a caned seat, made in about 1875 and selected in recognition of International Women’s Day on 8 March. In the 1870s in the Wycombe area, caned seats were increasingly made by women as work in lace making became harder to find and paid less. Women caners worked in the factories, workshops and their own homes, fitting their work around child care, cooking and cleaning. 

This chair is not currently on display. It has been recently cleaned, as part of Wycombe Museum’s Chair Store project. 

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

Museum number HIWLH : 1990.38 

Our Chair of the Month for February is this office chair with an inverted heart pierced into the back. It probably dates from around 1900 and has a venetian red mahogany style finish. It can be viewed in the chair galleries at Wycombe Museum. 

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

Museum number HIWLH : 1990.23

January’s Chair of the Month is this Art Nouveau-style carved armchair with a pink velvet-covered upholstered seat.

It was made by John R Clarke of High Wycombe in about 1905, and carved by his brother-in law Edmund Hutchinson. At the time this chair was made, several Wycombe makers were experimenting with fashionable styles like this, as well as continuing to make traditional Wycombe chairs like Windsors. 

This chair is part of the latest batch recently added to our online chair database. See more at the link below!

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

December make us think of being cosy and comfortable at home beside the fire, and this month’s chair of the month would be perfect for that!

These chairs were first made by G-Plan in about 1965 and the company named them ‘The World’s Most Comfortable Chair’. Made between 1965 and 1980, they have featured in James Bond films as the villain’s chair.

This particular chair was used by a family in Hounslow, and still has the green velour cover that the family used to protect it.

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

November’s Chair of the Month is a trouser press chair.

Made in London in the 1920s by VC Bond and Sons, it was given the name Vee Cee Bee, after the company name. Like bedroom chairs made in High Wycombe it has a caned seat. It also has a press in the back, used to take the creases out of trousers.

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

Our Chair of the Month for October is this mid 20th century dining chair by Owen Haines’ factory in High Wycombe.

Underneath the seat are the initials ‘OH’, handwritten in ink. It was previous catalogued as being possibly made by Owen Harris. However, we’ve been doing some work across our chair collection, and we think ‘Owen Harris’ was a mistake and that this chair was in fact made by Owen Haines. Other chairs in our collection by Owen Haines have the same handwritten initials.

We know that Owen Haines’s factory was in Jubilee Road and Green Street from about 1907 until the 1960s. There is no record of an Owen Harris making chairs. Owen Haines was the last chair factory owner to be mayor of High Wycombe, 1960-61.

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

It’s back to school and college in September and we have chosen this student’s chair for September’s chair of the month.

It has an arm rest suitable for resting a notebook on to take notes, and it was used in a University of Oxford College in the early 1900s.

This chair can be seen in the Chair Galleries at Wycombe Museum.

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In honour of the British seaside, we have chosen a chair with a Brighton connection for Chair of the Month in August. It was made for Preston Barracks, Brighton and although it may look like it has an arm missing, it was made as a one-armed chair. Soldiers could wear their dress swords for formal dinners without the sword getting tangled in the arm of the chair. Made in about 1890.

This chair can be seen in the Chair Galleries at Wycombe Museum.

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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.

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