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.
Members may be interested to know that BAFRA (British Antique Furniture Restorers’ Association) has arranged a visit to the Wycombe Museum https://wycombemuseum.org.uk the morning of Friday 27thJune 2025 where, at 11am, we will have a talk on Chairmaking in the Chilterns by curator Catherine Grigg followed by a tour of the chairs and hopefully the opportunity to examine more closely some of the exhibits there. We would like to meet for lunch somewhere and then are planning to move on to High Wycombe Chair Making Museum CIC –https://www.kraftinwood.com/ for a guided tour by Robert Bishop.
If anyone fancies even more Chair related activity there is the option to do the chair trail –https://wycombemuseum.org.uk/here-chair-everywhere-heritage-walking-trail at their leisure.
This is free to BAFRA members with a nominal charge of £10 for non-members (lunch not included)
To book your place please contact Diane at Head Office headoffice@bafra.org.uk 01939 210826
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.
This year we are again going to offer the possibility of joining the AGM by Zoom.
The 41st Annual General Meeting will be held at the University of Aberdeen in the Linklater Rooms, Elphinstone Hall, Old Aberdeen Campus on Sunday 6 July 2025 at 9.00 am
The Agenda, the Minutes of the AGM held in 2024 and the Annual Report & Accounts for 2024 have been posted on the website today, and will be available at the Conference/AGM on 6 July.
Members who wish to take part in the AGM via Zoom should email the Secretary on: david@davidfletchervaluer.co.uk
The Secretary will then forward to those members the access code for the Zoom meeting, the Agenda, the Minutes of the AGM held in 2024, and the Annual Report & Accounts for 2024. This will be done a week before the meeting.
The Annual Report and Accounts for 2024 can also be sent to any member requiring a paper version. They should contact the Secretary to request a copy and should send an A4 self-addressed envelope.
David Fletcher
Secretary
6 June 2025
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.
Regional Furniture Society 
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