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拍品专文
Turned rush seated chairs of both ladder and spindle back designs, together with others showing influences from fashionable chairs made with sawn back uprights, are locally associated with the Whitby area of North Yorkshire. Examples were photographed coincidentally in the 19th century by the celebrated local photographer, F.M. Sutcliffe, in the village of Glaisdale, some ten miles from Whitby. These chairs are typical products of a rural turner's workshop, simple upright and robust in design.
The spindle back designs are of two types; one less elaborate than the other. The simpler form has three decoratively turned spindles in the back, held between two plain cross slats, and with two round plain front stretchers connecting the front legs. The more elaborate form has a row of three turned balls set between two cross slats below the three splindles, and with two decoratively turned front stretchers. Unusually, all of the chair types have a seat edge strip to the front which is concave at the rear to fit around the front edge of the rush rail. The ladder back variety has four domed ladders in the back and straight back uprights terminating in large decoratively turned finials, with the two front stretchers being plain, round turned. More rarely, chairs were made with sawn back uprights and stylised cross slats with central tablets, but with the turned front legs and stretchers found in the other chairs in this group. Chairs from this tradition were originally painted in blue, green, light grey or brown and the rush seats were commonly painted too. Research seeking to identify the maker of these chairs has rejected the fashionable cabinet makers and few chair makers who centred themselves in the fishing port of Whitby as possibilities, since these closely similar chairs are undoubtedly the product of one rural chair maker or workshop. The research has focused on one such chair-maker, William Frankland, who is recorded working in the small village of Egton, some nine miles from Whitby and barely a mile from Glaisdale, from 1841 when he was thirty one years of age, until he is last recorded in 1881, still as a chair maker, aged seventy one. Given this sustained working life, and the record of his son, John, working with him in 1861, it seems entirely possible that he was the sole producer of these chair designs, which are commonly known as 'Whitby' chairs.
Dr. B.D. Cotton, October 2000
The spindle back designs are of two types; one less elaborate than the other. The simpler form has three decoratively turned spindles in the back, held between two plain cross slats, and with two round plain front stretchers connecting the front legs. The more elaborate form has a row of three turned balls set between two cross slats below the three splindles, and with two decoratively turned front stretchers. Unusually, all of the chair types have a seat edge strip to the front which is concave at the rear to fit around the front edge of the rush rail. The ladder back variety has four domed ladders in the back and straight back uprights terminating in large decoratively turned finials, with the two front stretchers being plain, round turned. More rarely, chairs were made with sawn back uprights and stylised cross slats with central tablets, but with the turned front legs and stretchers found in the other chairs in this group. Chairs from this tradition were originally painted in blue, green, light grey or brown and the rush seats were commonly painted too. Research seeking to identify the maker of these chairs has rejected the fashionable cabinet makers and few chair makers who centred themselves in the fishing port of Whitby as possibilities, since these closely similar chairs are undoubtedly the product of one rural chair maker or workshop. The research has focused on one such chair-maker, William Frankland, who is recorded working in the small village of Egton, some nine miles from Whitby and barely a mile from Glaisdale, from 1841 when he was thirty one years of age, until he is last recorded in 1881, still as a chair maker, aged seventy one. Given this sustained working life, and the record of his son, John, working with him in 1861, it seems entirely possible that he was the sole producer of these chair designs, which are commonly known as 'Whitby' chairs.
Dr. B.D. Cotton, October 2000