English Country Windsor Chairs
CHAIRS: COUNTRY WINDSOR
Late-18th century yew comb-back Windsor chair.
Made from the early-18thC onwards by wood turners or ‘bodgers’ setting up temporary workshops in woodland areas. Although made in many parts of the country - hence enormous regional differences in detail - High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire became, and has remained, the centre of the industry. Since the late-19thC, Windsors and their variants have been mass-produced there by machine.
They have many uses - particularly in gardens, coffee-houses and sometimes in halls (18thC) and in kitchens, farmhouses and institutions in the 19th and 20thC.
Early ’stick-back’ versions were simple, with taper-turned sticks (turned with tapering ends) rising from a saddle seat through a horizontal yew-wood hoop forming back and arm supports and dowelling into a shaped crest rail. The most distinctive of these have a comb shape - hence the term ‘comb back’. Splayed, turned legs, at first without stretchers, but soon with either turned H or curved crinoline (or cow’s horn) stretchers.
Hooped backs (with a continuous hoop rising from the back support to replace the horizontal crest rail): Shaped and pierced central splats (at first sometimes set below the back support only); and cabriole legs all
appeared around 1750.
Pierced Gothic splats: Often combined with pointed arch backs and cabriole legs, were introduced about 1760. The familiar wheel-back splat and diagonal struts rising from a ‘bobtail’ extension of the seat - both
common features on machine-made Windsors - first appeared around 1775.
‘Gothic’ Windsor armchair.
With the exception of cabrioles, front and back were turned and identical (from the late-19thC usually machine-turned with double or triple collars.
Saddle seats were common to all and arm supports either turned or (mostly before 1810) curved.
For popular variants - including the ‘Mibnc1leshann’ chair (early-19thC onwards) and the collectable ’smoker’s cow’ - see illustrations.
Various combinations of elm, ash, yew, beech, birch and fruit woods. Occasionally mahogany. Elm used almost invariably for seats; beech common for legs and, until the 19thC nearly always yew for hoops.
Selection of 19th C chairs: A, Mendlesharn,- B, smoker’s bow C, farmhouse kitchen; D, child’s Windsor highchair; F rope-back kitchen chair.
All parts dowelled. Legs and back uprights always separate (legs never continuous with uprights above). Seats split, not sawn (saw marks indicate a later date). Sticks taper-turned on a pole lathe, hence of irregular
thickness. (Machine-cut stocks have an even shape and are not tapered.) Hoops steam-bent into shape. On single chairs, the hoop passes through seat and is split and wedged underneath. On machine-made versions
this does not occur sometimes the hoop does not pierce all the way through the seat.
Carving and piercing on splats. Turning on legs and some arm supports.
Paint common in 18thC, most fashionably green, sometimes black (japanned). Otherwise polish; some left unfinished for outdoor use. Stain and varnish used in 19thC.
VALUES
Plenty of variation. Good early and hoop back Windsors are expensive, few selling for less than four figures. 19thC versions correspondingly less. Harlequin sets of all ages are common and, if matched well, no less
expensive than an identical set. Few post-1900 sets fetch less than four figures.
Yew, crinoline stretcher, cabriole legs, comb back, Gothic splat and arched back all enhance the value.
Tags: 18th century, armchair, Buckinghamshire, CHAIRS, coffee houses, country, Gothic, high wycombe, stretchers, value, Windsor, windsor chair, windsors, wood, yew wood