Lot Essay
Windsor chairs of this distinctive design were made by the firm of Gillows in Lancaster, who included drawings of such chairs in their Estimate Sketch Books of 1798 and 1806 which describe them respectively as made in elm and cherry tree or in ash. The 1806 estimate notes that the chairs can be green and cost 6s 9½d to make.
This unusual design of Windsor chair is characterised in having a shallow bent crinolene stretcher joining the front legs with two long supports to the rear legs. The front underarm supports are similarly shallow in their curvature and in common with the curved stretcher are hand-shaped rather than steamed and bent. The top bow is acutely bent and the back spindles fan outwards. The front legs have a disctinctive lower pear shaped turning and the legs are morticed through the seat.
There is a set of four chairs of this design, in ash, at the Judges' Lodgings in Lancaster. A further example at Temple Newsam House in Leeds preserves some blue/green paint.
This unusual design of Windsor chair is characterised in having a shallow bent crinolene stretcher joining the front legs with two long supports to the rear legs. The front underarm supports are similarly shallow in their curvature and in common with the curved stretcher are hand-shaped rather than steamed and bent. The top bow is acutely bent and the back spindles fan outwards. The front legs have a disctinctive lower pear shaped turning and the legs are morticed through the seat.
There is a set of four chairs of this design, in ash, at the Judges' Lodgings in Lancaster. A further example at Temple Newsam House in Leeds preserves some blue/green paint.
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