LATE 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY

This powerfully designed Windsor chair has the common characteristic of many Welsh Windsors in having back spindles which are bent inwards to fix to the comb rail. This example is unusually large, having eleven long spindles in the back. The practice of bending spindles inwards and the outer ones backwards, has a dynamic purpose in placing the chairs under tension, which in turn helps resist backwards pressure, enabling the chair construction to remain taut. Not all Welsh Windsors were made with this form of construction, others have vertical spindles as in the previous lot. However those which do have inwardly bent spindles are invariably from Wales and contrast with those from the West Country where the alternative technique of splaying the back spindles outwards was common.

Dr B D Cotton, January 2004