The chairs came fresh from a country residence, Stoke House in the Somerset village of Stoke St. Mary, part of a small group of items consigned prior to the sale of the property itself.
Auctioneer Luke Macdonald was certain that, despite lacking a maker's mark, the heart-pierced splat, curved arms, tapering legs and dovetailing, all pointed to one of the great names of the Arts & Crafts movement, Charles F.A. Voysey (1857-1941).
The architect designer had no specific connection with Stoke House, but he undertook a great deal of work in the area and it seems that the vendor's mother bought the chairs in a local house sale in 1966.
The catalogue carried an attribution to Voysey, so why the £300-500 estimate?
Partly this was an indication that the chairs were there to sell but it also reflected their history over the last four decades - much loved and much used but left out on a verandah in all weathers, resulting in wind and rain having the effect of stripping three of them (the fourth had enjoyed a more sheltered position).
At some point they were given new rush seat pads and painted white. Despite all this, their intrinsic worth saw them sell at £11,000.
And the reason for regret? There was a fifth chair but its condition was such that it collapsed recently and was consigned to a bonfire.
