51/63

This is a spindle (the sticks which form the back of a chair) from a smoker bow, a type of Windsor chair, and is made of beech. It is an armchair with a low back and sturdy legs. (See 51/70, 51/72)

1 cross strut spindle; wood (beech); good condition

Citation in publication [H. J. Massingham, 'Country Relics' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1939)] –'Hanging up under the thatch of the Hermitage is a row of nine chair legs, spindles and stretchers, each one of different size, shape and design in the turning, but one and all made of beech-wood, fresh and clean as a new pin and the work of a single living man. The "Smocker" spindle, 10 in. long, has the same formal but varied turnery as the other parts.' (pp 52), MERL list / description [Massingham Collection, October 1989] – 'ACC. NO.: 51/63 // NAME: CHAIR SPINDLE // NEG NO.: 35/1935 // STORAGE: ', Object history research, December 2022 - 'How can this object be described? This is a cylindrical rod of wood with ridges and hollows. The wood is beech. The surface is smooth. Both ends are plain cylinders. // What was this object used for? This is a spindle for a chair. It is one of the sticks which form the back of a chair. It is for a smoker bow, a type of Windsor chair, which is an armchair with a low back and sturdy legs. // What does a Windsor chair look like? Today ‘Windsor’ is a generic term for any chair which has both the legs and the uprights wedged into holes bored in a flat seat. In most other chairs the back legs and back uprights are one piece. In a Windsor chair the legs and the uprights are separate. This chair is a Windsor Comb-back [MERL 77/233]. This style of chair was popular from around 1700-1800, and then again, in a heavier design, from around 1830-1900. // How old is it? The spindle was probably made between 1900 and 1939. It was probably made by a Chiltern bodger in the beech woods near High Wycombe. It was donated to the Museum by Harold Massingham whose collection included nine different chairs legs, spindles and stretchers. // What is a bodger? A bodger is the name for a traditional wood worker who turns chair legs and other cylindrical parts out of green wood. They usually make the chair legs near where the tree was felled. // How is it made? The spindle was made on a lathe. A lathe rotates a piece of wood while the bodger uses gouges to shape it into a round object. // Chair leg maker Samuel Rockall, photographed during the 1940s, is seen turning a decorated ringed Windsor chair leg on his fly-wheel lathe, a process taking just two or three minutes to complete. Those bodgers who worked out in the woodlands would use the pole lathe when turning their chair legs. Photograph by Sam Snow. MERL SR RIB PH2/4/1.'

1930-01-01 - 1939-12-31

1930s