Yew wood spindle back Windsor armchair, with double spindle back support with a central pierced splat above a shaped seat, raised on ring turned legs united by a crinoline stretcher
Size: 40 ¾ h x 24 w x 25 d in
A19708
As early as the 16th century wheelrights in the West Country, Wales and Ireland began producing chair spindles the same way they made wheel spokes. There were three types of craftsmen involved in the construction, the bodger (usually an itinerant who worked in the woods and made just the legs and stretchers on a pole lathe), the benchman (who worked in a small town or village workshop and would produce the seats and backsplats) and the final craftsman was the framer (who would take the parts and assemble and finish the chair). The U-shaped stretcher beneath, called a ‘crinoline stretcher’ was designed to accommodate a woman’s dress which used stiff horsehair (crin) to hold the structured petticoat out. Using local woods Windsor chairs became popular as they were lightweight and easy to move. The first chairs made this way were shipped to London in 1724 from Windsor and one theory is that this is from where the name derives. The style was brought to North America by British settlers, appearing as early as 1730 in Philadelphia.