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25th Annual Frederick Parker Lectures and Dinner – Thursday 14 March 2024 – Furniture Makers’ Hall, 12 Austin Friars, London EC2

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Members may be interested in the following event:

The Frederick Parker Collection is a unique and outstanding educational resource spanning over 300 years of British furniture making and design, from 1660 to the present day.  The Collection comprises over 200 chairs, together with an archive of related historical documents and artefacts and became part of the Furniture Makers’ Company in 2013.

We are delighted that we have two exceptional speakers for the Annual Lectures this year:

Joseph Bray – “Sylva Wood School: bridging the gap between education and practice”

Joe leads the Sylva Foundation’s Wood School and describes himself as a designer, maker and teacher. He is passionate about inspiring and supporting people to become skilled craftspeople and furniture makers. He has been directly involved in the furniture industry for the past 25 years.

After completing a BA(Hons) and MA in Furniture Design he worked as a bespoke furniture designer, maker and production coordinator, before returning to educate the next generation of furniture designers and craftspeople at Rycotewood in Oxford. He strives to develop partnerships and collaborations leading to live projects, study trips, work experience, internships and sponsorship for students.

Joe is a Churchill Fellow, in 2018/2019 he travelled to Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and the USA, to explore the future of furniture craft education. The experience was enlightening, providing the inspiration for the creation of Sylva Foundation’s workshops and development of their unique courses.

His talk will chart the development of a unique approach to teaching furniture making skills, inspired by his 14 years teaching at Rycotewood and his fellowship travels. He will then share his work to establish a programme to improve diversity across the sector

Roger Wates – “E & A Wates – a furnisher in south London 1900-2021”

Roger’s degree was in accountancy and business law at Stirling University but he spent his career in the retail sector. Cutting his teeth with Marks & Spencer in stores around the country he then worked in Peru before joining his family business E & A Wates in 1985 which comprised three stores in South London. In a career that challenged every facet of his character, he became joint MD in 1990 and loved the all-encompassing nature of the work.

Long standing businesses tend to have a wide breadth of services and E & A Wates, which was established in1900, embraced selling furniture, undertaking removals and storage, commercial and domestic furniture restoration and interior design.

Roger balanced the wonderful restoration work with the drive to purchase and create inspiring displays of new furniture. The company was at the heart of the Streatham community with many local clients and ran workshop tours, public talks and shows alongside fascinating commercial projects in London and overseas.

Roger ran his family furnishing business for 36 years until it closed in 2021. He will talk about the origins and growth of the company, his father’s talent, the personalities involved, its building connections, and the influence of war.  Roger will also examine its interesting client base and highlight the skilled work undertaken by the company’s craftspeople.

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The lectures will be followed by a sparkling wine reception. We hope you will also wish to stay for the annual dinner (see booking form), which is always a popular and enjoyable occasion and an excellent opportunity to meet other supporters of the Frederick Parker Collection.  Places are limited so please reply as soon as possible using the attached application form.  All proceeds from the evening will go to support the Collection and its development as an educational resource for aspiring furniture designers.

If you are interested the application form is here.

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Chair of the month – February 2024

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Does this bring back memories of the Swinging Sixties?

Chair of the Month for February is this wonderful GoGo chair, designed by Robert Bennett for Evans of High Wycombe.  Evans have been making bespoke sofas and chairs since 1958, and the GoGo reflects their innovative and experimental designs of the time which used new materials and styles, such as this blue vinyl, bucket-shaped chair.

Robert Bennett was a local furniture designer whose career also saw him designing pieces for another local company, Gomme Ltd, as part of their renowned G-Plan range.

You can see this chair in our temporary exhibition ‘Our Place’ until 10 March 2024.Chair of the Month is a partnership between Wycombe Museum www.wycombemuseum.org and the Regional Furniture Society https://regionalfurnituresociety.org

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Chair of the month – January 2024

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Chair of the Month for January is for anyone who has made a New Year’s Resolution to have better posture!

Made in about 1790, it is a type of child’s chair known as a deportment chair or correction chair. The high, narrow, shiny seat meant that there was no slouching– or the child would slide off!

You can see this chair in Wycombe Museum’s permanent galleries. 

Chair of the Month is a partnership between Wycombe Museum wycombemuseum.org.uk and the Regional Furniture Society regional furnituresociety.org

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Chair of the month for December is this Wheelback Windsor armchair

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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

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November’s chair of the month is this ‘Q – Stack’ chair

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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

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Designing and Making Furniture: examining the creative process from 1600 to 1950 – BIFMO-FHS online course – every Wednesday throughout November 2023

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L-R: Thomas Chippendale’s drawing of the bed made for the 5th Earl of Dumfries. ©Rogers Fund, 1920, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Detail of a botany diagram to illustrate design lectures by Christopher Dresser (1854-6); pen and ink and watercolour. © V&A, London . Design for a state bed by John Linnell (c. 1765); pen and ink, graphite, red, yellow and black watercolour. © V&A, London. Detail of a design for a commode by Robert Adam (c. 1777); pencil, pen and wash. © V&A, London. 

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. 

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National Museum of Scotland – The Scottish Interior – 1 December 2023 09:30 to 17:30

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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.

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Chair of the Month for October is the Wycombe Pitt Chair

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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

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FREDERICK PARKER CHAIR COLLECTION – ONLINE CATALOGUE

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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. 

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