ENGLISH, 19TH CENTURY

The design of this chair follows closely that of 'The Glastonbury Chair', from The Bishop's Palace, Wells, first published in Shaw's Specimens of Ancient Furniture, in 1836, (reproduced below left), when it was then thought to be a medieval original. (The chair is now believed to have been made in the 18th century, based on Petrarch's chair). A.W.N. Pugin used the same form in chairs which he designed for several of his ecclesiastical commissions, including a set for the dining room at the Bishop's House, Birmingham. The present chair is close to Pugin's examples, and reflects the revived taste for the 'Medieval' or 'Gothic' styles in England begun by Pugin in the 1830s and which continued through to the third quarter of the 19th century.
See: Atterbury and Wainwright, p. 132, discussion of the 'Glastonbury' chair in relation to Pugin's work.