68/459

Leslie Maltby (Manufacturer)

This is one of several seats made by Leslie Maltby for the Museum to demonstrate the craft of willow chair seating. Mr Maltby came from a family of basketmakers and chair seaters, originally based in High Wycombe, the centre of the chair making industry in Britain. This seat, which is unfinished, is made of willow skein on an ash frame with an underweave of chair cane.

1 chair seat: willow, ash, cane

The fashion for willow chair seats was at its height circa 1850 as bedroom or boudoir chairs. Chairs were made to order and sent to a basketmaker for seating. The Youens family (of Belgian or Flemish extraction) and later the Maltby family (descendents of the Youens) had the monopoly in High Wycombe (the centre of chair making) of chair seating. Leslie Maltby, active in the 1960s, carried on this work. The seats are made of willow skeins on a wooden frame, possibly of oak. The skeins are made from 6 foot white willows, split with a cleave into three or four skeins and shaved and uprighted to make the skeins an even thickness and width (into a No. 4 chair cane). Strips of willow rod are nailed along the inner sides of the frame and it is over and around these that the knots hold. The warp (staking) is done with three skeins at a time and the weft, which begins at the centre, must be carefully counted. A single seat will use up to 200 skeins, and there are at least twenty different patterns., MERL 'Catalogue of baskets' form – 'NAME: Seat (sample, willow) // Acc. No.: 68/459 // Group: CRAFTS. WOOD. Chairs // Neg. no.: 60/13225 // Place of origin: Kensington. London. W.8. // Period in use: // DESCRIPTION // Materials: Ash frame. Willow skein. The underweave is chair cane. // Maker: Leslie Maltby // Shape and construction: The seat is shorter at back than front. Each crossing of warp & weft is one skein. Various damask pats. [patterns] are used & these are begun at the centre. Holes 1” apart on underside. // Dimensions: 40 cm x 34 cm. // Use: Made as a pattern of the craft for MERL. Particularly on crown-back bedroom & boudoir chairs from 1850 onwards. // Dialect names: // Distribution: // Additional notes: This craft employing willow may be continental in origin & not native. It appears in… But it was carried on by the Youens family (of Belgian or Flemish extraction), basketmakers in High Wycombe from 1787 or earlier until about 10 years ago. Leslie Maltby’s grandmother was Youens. It is likely that they were the only craftsmen to do this form of seating on chairs made in High Wycombe which was & is the centre of chair making.'

Greater London [region]

1968 - 1968

Chair seat, Basketwork

Wood, willow, Wood, ash, Plant fibre, rattan

Youens Family ()
Wright, Dorothy (Recorder)