Your chance to join in the Great Chair Hunt...

In the counties of Leicestershire and Rutland there used to be a thriving chairmaking tradition. In the late 18th and 19th century there were many chairmakers in each county. They made chairs for the farms and towns people across the region. We know many of their names and where they worked but what did the chairs look like?

Christopher Payne, who was born and raised in Leicestershire and is familiar to many from the BBC’s Antique Roadshow, and Dr Bernard ‘Bill’ Cotton, a leading furniture historian and author of The English Regional Chair, need your help to answer this question. They invite you to bring your old chairs to Oakham Castle in Rutland for an identification day, sponsored by local auctioneers Tennants of Oakham.

Fortunately they do have a place to start the hunt since there is one positively dentified chair from the region as well as a list of makers and where they worked. They can also look at the chair traditions of neighbouring counties since they may be similar to those made in Leicestershire and Rutland.

William Rowe

The only chair to have been positively identified from the region to date was made in the 1840s by William Rowe. It is stamped with William’s name and Hallaton, the village where he worked. It is a type of Windsor chair called a stick or comb back. Unfortunately not all makers marked their products but chairs that are marked will be very important in the search.

If you have an old wooden chair (not upholstered), perhaps inherited or bought locally from an antique dealer or auction, please take it along to Oakham Castle on May 23 or 24 from 10.30am. Each day will start with a short talk by Dr Cotton on traditional chair making. All chairs brought in will then be looked at between 11am and 4pm. Oakham Castle is in Church Street, Oakham, Rutland.

For more information contact Alison Lee on 01489 860639, or email greatchairhunt@aol.com.