Not on display

Windsor Armchair

1760-1775 (made), 01/01/1750-31/12/1800 (made)
Artist/Maker
Unknown
Place of origin
Great Britain (made)

Windsor chairs are characterised by having turned legs and back-frames, which are dowelled into a solid wooden seat. Their name probably derives from the town of Windsor in Berkshire, which is situated on the river Thames and was ideally located as a distribution point for chairs made in the Thames Valley region, where many chairs of this type were made. Windsor chairs were, however, also produced in many other areas of Britain during the 18th and 19th centuries. The back and legs of the chair are made of yew, with an elm seat carved in a saddle shape. Better-quality 18th-century Windsor chairs often had cabriole (S-shaped) front legs, as in this example. The back-splat is carved to resemble the tracery of a Gothic church window.

Object details

Categories
Furniture
Woodwork
Object type
Windsor armchair
Materials and techniques
Yew, cherry and elm, carved and bent, with turned back legs and stretchers
Yew
Elm
Cherry
Carving
Turning
Brief description
Windsor armchair with Gothic tracery back and cabriole legs
Physical description
Windsor armchair with a back in the form of a pointed arch and the three back splats pierced with gothic tracery. The arm-bow is plain and horizontal, and the under-arm supports are curved. The seat is carved in a saddle shape with an incised border. The cabriole front legs are connected to the plain back legs with a bowed front stretcher and two short plain turned back stretchers. There are brackets to the front and sides of the front legs where they meet the seat. The front bracket on the right side is detached. At the top of each front leg, there is a shield-like carving. The front feet are raised on pads. The back legs and back stretchers are made from cherry.
Dimensions
  • Height: 104cm
  • Width: 58cm
  • Depth: 43cm (Note: The width is measured across the seat; the width between the arms is 43cm. The depth is measured back to front on the seat.)
Measured from object 24/11/2016
Style
Gothic
Credit line
Given by Brigadier W. E. Clark CMG, DSO through Art Fund
Object history
Given by Brigadier W.E. Clark, through the National Art-Collections Fund (Registered Papers for acquisition 65/3026).
The provenance of the chair prior to the Bequest is unknown.
On Loan to Brighton Museum & Art Gallery in 1975

Armchairs W.12-1940 and W.24-1954 are of the same pattern. Two armchairs of this pattern were sold from the Keck collection by Sotheby's, NY 30 November-5 December 1991, lot 238. The catalogue notes record that a set of four from the collection of the Earl of Yarborough were illustrated in M. Jourdain and F. Rose, English Furniture, the Georgian Period (London: B.T. Batsford Ltd., 1953), fig. 43. A triple-chair-back settee of this pattern was sold by Sotheby's, New York, 26 January, 1991, lot 122.
Summary
Windsor chairs are characterised by having turned legs and back-frames, which are dowelled into a solid wooden seat. Their name probably derives from the town of Windsor in Berkshire, which is situated on the river Thames and was ideally located as a distribution point for chairs made in the Thames Valley region, where many chairs of this type were made. Windsor chairs were, however, also produced in many other areas of Britain during the 18th and 19th centuries. The back and legs of the chair are made of yew, with an elm seat carved in a saddle shape. Better-quality 18th-century Windsor chairs often had cabriole (S-shaped) front legs, as in this example. The back-splat is carved to resemble the tracery of a Gothic church window.
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • A similar chair is illustrated in Coleridge, Anthony, Chippendale Furniture, 1968 Plate 157, in Edwards, Ralph, English Chairs, Victoria and Albert Museum 1951 and Macquoid, Percy, The Dictionary of English Furniture , revised by Edwards, Ralph,1953, Volume 1, p319 Plate 2
  • The Windsor Chair: An illustrated history of a classic English chair p. 46, illustrated p. 48 ‘Possibly one of the most attractive examples of the pointed Gothic Windsor is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. This has a triple splat in the back with smaller arm splat each side. The chair is made of yew and beech and the noble back echoes the magnificence of the Gothic influence in its highest flights of fancy.'
  • The English Country Chair: An illustrated history of chairs and chairmaking p. 96, illustrated p. 97 'Probably the most attractive example of Gothic Windsor chairs is in th Victoria and Albert Museum. The triple splat armchair echoes the magnificence of the more elaborate excesses of the Gothis revival, and this influence was to be felt thrugh the Regency period into Victorian days, with the interlaced bow and the simpler side chair with its baluster and arch-back rail.'
  • The Rural Chair: A travelling exhibition arranged by the Circulation Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum '‘12. Chippendale Windsor’ armchair. Yew with an elm seat. The back is pointed, formed of two bent wood pieces jointed at the apex. The arm-rail and cow-horn stretcher of bent wood. The axe-shaped seat is supported on open-work brackets; the front legs are cabriole with shield-shaped knees and pad feet. See no. 11 for the carved splats. This type continued an early 18th century practise of making Windsors with carved ornament in dearer woods like mahogany for more elegant settings. Probably 1815-35. w.17-1965'
Collection
Furniture and Woodwork Collection
Accession number
W.17-1965

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Record createdDecember 15, 2007
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O141880/windsor-armchair-unknown/
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