Ladder-back armchair in ash, the front legs turned,with pad feet, the seat of rush. Part of a set with three chairs, W.20 to W .22-1950.

Armchair of turned and carved ash with rush seat. The back is of wavy 'ladder' form with six shaped splats framed between turned uprights, which extend below the seat and form the back legs, square in section, with chamfered edges. The arms are flat and are shaped in a slight S-curve, supported on turned uprights which, continued below the seat to form the front legs, which terminate in club feet. These legs are are turned, with marked swelling and an outset collar above the upper stretcher, the top turned as a cap, with incised, concentric lines, The front stretcher is of a quadruple baluster shape, with incised lines. The other stretchers are plainly turned, with two stretchers at each side, and a single stretcher at the back. The rush seat may be original, but the protective strips of wood have been replaced. The one at the back is in beech, the others in dark-stained pine, attached with wire nails.

Bequeathed by H.C. Coleman

Bequeathed by H.C. Coleman, Durford Rising, Durford Wood, Petersfield (with two matching side chairs and an armchair, the set W.19-1950 to W.22-1950); the chairs described as standing in Mr Coleman's dining room (possibly two armchairs but only one acquired) with a gate-leg table (W.18-1950); elm, mid-18th century. These were described on acquisition as elm but appear to be ash (NH, 2016). See Registered File 49/208A.

For an authoritative account of NW 'Wavy' line ladder back chairs, see Bernard D. Cotton, The English Regional Chair. (Woodbridge, Antique Collectors’ Club, 1990), pp.414-419. Cotton notes that the makers of this type of chair did not conventionally stamp their work by name, although he does record one stamped by T. Clayton, Stockport, Cheshire, c. 1830 as plate 53, p. 317 and another stamped 'W.SLEE' (unrecorded) as fig. NW355, p. 416.

Loaned to Aberdeen, 1953
Loaned to Sulgrave Manor, near Banbury, 1968-1978
Loaned to Shugborough Hall Farm from 1989 to 2021 (Registered File 89/1678). Returned from loan April 2021.

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This armchair is part of a set with three single chairs (W.19 to W.22-1950). They are typical of the kind of chairs made in Lancashire in the early 19th century. Such chairs would have been used in all sorts of houses from cottages to substantial farmhouses or town houses of the middling sort.

W.19-1950