wells 'antiquarian' chair

Arm-chair of turned ash and oak. Rectangular back with elaborately turned rails with knobs and loose rings; back leg joined to centre of back. Four sloping rails join the back to two heavy uprights which are continuous with the front legs. Triangular seat. The three legs are joined by stretchers with turned rails in front.

Presented by his family, in memory of the late Walter L. Behrens

Probably made by Mr Kensett of Mortimer Street, London



From: H. Clifford Smith, Catalogue of English Furniture & Woodwork
(London 1930), cat. 511, Plate 4.
W. 24-1913.
Arm-chair of turned ash and oak. Rectangular back with elaborately turned rails with knobs and loose rings; back leg joined to centre of back. Four sloping rails join the back to two heavy uprights which are continuous with the front legs. Triangular seat. The three legs are joined by stretchers with turned rails in front.

16th or 17th century.
From catalogue H. 4 ft. 5 ½ in., W. 2 ft. 8 in., D. 2 ft. 3 in. (H. 135.9 cm, W. 81.3 cm, D. 68.6 cm)
Given by his Family in memory of the late Walter L. Behrens.

Compare similar chairs at: Bishop’s Palace, Wells (Bond, ‘Stalls, etc.,’ p. 115); Harvard College, U.S.A. (Lyon, ‘Colonial Furniture,’ p. 138); Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Wright, ‘Homes of Other Days,’ p. 477); Dunster Castle (Lyte, ‘History of Dunster,’ p. 380).
These turned or ‘thrown’ chairs, constructed of interlacing struts and rails, carved and turned with numerous knobs and rings, are found in the West Country, the Marches of Wales, in Herefordshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire. They are usually accepted as being a rustic survival of the traditional mediaeval chair seen in illuminated manuscripts, in which a memory of the Byzantine form of furniture obscurely persisted. See ‘Letters of Horace Walpole,’ Aug. 20th, 1761: ‘Dicky Bateman has picked up a whole cloister full of old chairs in Herefordshire – he bought them one by one, here and there in farm houses, for three and sixpence and a crown apiece. They are of wood, the seats triangular, the back, arms, and legs loaded with turnery.’

Probably made by Mr Kensett of Mortimer Street, London

Object Type
This chair is a reproduction of a 17th-century turned chair in the Bishop's Palace at Wells, Somerset. It was probably made from an illustration of the Wells chair rather than as a measured copy because there are numerous small differences in the turnings and construction. When it was made, probably in the 1830s, there was a growing market for furniture from earlier centuries, both genuine and copies. This one appears to have been a copy, rather than a fake intended to deceive.

Time
In 1913, when this chair was given to the V&A, it was thought to be a genuine 17th-century example. It was not until the 1970s, when it was closely examined, that curators found drill holes which could only have been made with a 19th-century drill, and realised that the chair must date from about 1830-1840.

People
The chair may have been made for sale by Mr Kensett, a London furniture broker, because he is mentioned by name in a book published in 1833, the Encyclopaedia of Cottage, Farm and Villa Architecture and Furniture by John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843). Mentioning the celebrated chair at the Bishop's Palace at Wells, Loudon reports that 'correct copies ... are manufactured by Mr Kensett for sale'.

Materials & Making
The chair is in the tradition of three-legged chairs made from turned parts dowelled together, which were made in Northern Europe from the 1500s. Turning (shaping wood with a chisel while turning it on a lathe) is an ancient technique.

W.24-1913