Windsor Armchair
1760-1770 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
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, however, were also produced in many other areas of Britain during the 18th and 19th centuries. The back and legs of this chair are made of yew, with an elm seat carved in a saddle shape. Better-quality 18th-century Windsor chairs often had cabriole (or 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 | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Yew and elm, carved and turned |
| Brief description | Windsor chair with Gothic tracery back and cabriole legs |
| Physical description | Windsor armchair with a back in the form of a pointed arch and three back splats pierced with gothic tracery. The arm-bow is plain and horizontal, and the under-arm supports are curved. The cabriole front legs are connected to the turned back legs with a bowed stretcher and two straight turned stretchers. Pad feet at front. There are four small round holes evenly-spaced on the underside of the seat. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Credit line | Bequeathed by Mrs S. I. Woodley in memory of her husband, Colonel Woodley. |
| Object history | Bequeathed by Mrs S.I. Woodley of Seckford Hall, near Woodbridge in 1940. The chair had been acquired by her late husband Colonel Woodley from a dealer in Bath. No earlier provenance is known It was on loan to Wakefield Museum & Art Gallery from 1956 to 1995 Armchairs W.24-1954 and W.17-1965 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, however, were also produced in many other areas of Britain during the 18th and 19th centuries. The back and legs of this chair are made of yew, with an elm seat carved in a saddle shape. Better-quality 18th-century Windsor chairs often had cabriole (or 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 reference | The chair is illustrated in Edwards, Ralph, English Chairs, V&A Museum 1952, Plate 79.
A similar is illustrated in Coleridge, Anthony, Chippendale Furniture, 1968 Plate 157.
See Dictionary of |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | W.12-1940 |
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| Record created | December 15, 2007 |
| Record URL |
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