An Arts & Crafts Chair by Ambrose Heal, England, 1901

The chair has an ecclesiastical feel, fumed oak and dome shaped with inlaid that includes winged cherubs, a lily and a rose motifs all suggest a memorial one might see depicted in a stain-glass or even a head stone. The high backed proportions of the chair allow the inlay work to be visible even when the child is sitting within it. The back of the chair is decorated with a design in inlay work that gives the date of the chair as 1901, hidden within a monogram.

The chair was commissioned by John Henry Angus for his youngest child, Joan Drummond Angus. The chair was held by the Angus family until it was aquired by the Museum.

The Angus family originated in Scotland and settled in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1584. The family's leather business was successful until its takeover by Dunlop in 1968. The chair was one of a number of pieces the family commissioned from Heal's. Joan was born in 1896, the youngest of ten children; the chair was made for her when she was five years old. She died of tuberculosis, seven years later aged 12, in 1908. The family still possess a number of portraits of Joan.

Joan’s oldest sister Christine, who is thought to have designed the inlaid decoration work, was a student at the Slade School of Fine Art and a pupil of Walter Sicket, whom she married in 1911. It was also while she was at Slade that she befriended Edith Todhunter who married Ambrose Heal in 1904. This connection led to Christine producing a number of designs for Heal & Sons, including for this chair. Within the Heals archive held by the V&A, a pencil drawing by Ambrose has been found with a note that says the piece of furniture should include decorative inlay work ‘preferably by Miss Angus’.

Joan’s Chair is an important Arts & Crafts piece dating from 1901, designed by Ambrose Heal and built by Heal and sons. The heavy set chair is made of oak and is decorated with inlay work believed to be designed by Christine Angus, Joan's sister, who was later the wife of the painter Walter Sickert.

The chair has an ecclesiastical feel, fumed oak and dome shaped, with inlaid decoration that includes winged cherubs, a lily and a rose. The high backed proportions of the chair allow the inlay to be visible even when a child is sitting in it. The back of the chair is decorated with a design that gives the date of the chair as 1901, hidden within a monogram.

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