Signpost is a free ezine from Bob Dillon Windsor Chairs. It is the
mission of this monthly ezine to explore the history and contruction of
Windsor chairs as well as other aspects of life in early America. For more
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***Signpost***
Issue No. One -- February 1, 2000
Contents:
- News
- Introduction
- The History of the Windsor Chair -- English Origins
- Pilgrims Come to America
- Guest Contributor: "The Wampanoag People" courtesy of Plimoth Plantation
NEWS:
Well here it is, issue Number One of my new ezine. It arrives along with a
few other new developments.
First, I know some of you are anxious to see my latest eBay auction. Well
it's going on now; a nice, barn red sack-back that's been seen at many a show.
You'll find it right
here.
Or go to bobdillonwindsorchairs.com and click on
the eBay link at the bottom of the page.
If you do visit my site -- there's a link right under the title above --
you will notice quite a
change. Mostly it's just a new look, but I've rearranged some of the
content as well, hopefully making it easier to get around. I've also set the
whole thing in frames so that the navigation is always in view. Or, if you
don't get along with frames, just click on the link in the upper left corner
and you'll be frameless -- navigation will then be found at the bottom of each page.
And, while you're there, take a look at the Queen Anne tea table I added to
the Custom Page. Actually, it's not a custom item at all. It's been part
of my regular line for years, and it's about time I introduced it
to my internet audience.
You will also find, on my About Windsors Page, a bunch of new links to
articles relating to Windsor chairs and similar topics.
So here it is, "Signpost No. One." I hope you enjoy it.
Introduction to Issue Number One
My own introduction to Windsor chairs came in a 1988 article in Fine Woodworking magazine. At the time "Windsor chair" was a familiar term, but I had no idea what they were and had never given them a thought. But this story about four New England chairmakers, working with hand tools, had a profound effect on me. And besides being captivated by the chairs and the work methods, I also fell prey to their history -- and the way early American history seemed to conspire in their favor.
So let's take a look at that history, starting with Windsor chair development in England and followed by a brief review of the beginnings of colonial New England. In the next issue we'll see how these chairs, at first imported from England, were soon being produced in abundance in the colonies as a distinctly American style of furniture.
Sincerely, Bob
The History of the Windsor Chair
The English Windsor Chair
A common story is that King George III (1738-1820), while fox hunting near Windsor castle, took shelter from a storm in a tenant's cottage and was given a simple, stick-built chair to sit in. So impressed was the King by this rustic seat that he had his carpenters make some for the castle, and they soon became fashionable in the area and the country.
Another story suggests that they were invented by a chairmaker in Windsor, England. However, there are no records of any chairmaker working there during the time period they are known to have emerged.
Setting myth and wishful thinking aside, then, we can assemble what facts are known and discover a more realistic tale, one of evolutionary development with ancient beginnings.
One of the basic features of the Windsor chair -- a set of legs socketed into a plank seat -- can be seen in rustic low stools of Egypt from as long ago as 1567-1320 B.C. From the period of the Roman Empire, numerous paintings depict craftsmen sitting on low, stick-built benches. There is little evidence from the Middle Ages (beginning around A.D. 476) of this sort of furniture, but beginning around the 13th century there are many illustrations of stools, benches and tables built with socketed parts. By the early 16th century simple "back stools" were in use. These used a few simple sticks socketed into the back edge of the seat, topped by a horizontal board, and were clearly precursors to what would later be understood as the Windsor chair.
The first true English Windsors may have been made as early as the 17th century, but this has never been established; little was written specifically about such plain furniture of rural origins. The first known reference is found in a will from 1708 stating: "A John Jones of Philadelphia, merchant who died possessed of a Windsor chair." (1) Another early reference was made by Steven Switzer in 1718 in a treatise on landscaping formal gardens, in which he describes a garden walk to a promontory that contained a Windsor seat. And in 1724, Lord Percival, Earl of Egmont, describes a walk in a garden where "...my wife was carry'd in a Windsor chair...." (1). The first illustration of a Windsor chair is found in a painting by Jacques Rigaud, dated 1733.
During the 1720s and 1730s Windsor chairs became very fashionable both inside and outside English homes. A London advertisement from 1730 includes "Windsor Garden Chairs, of all sizes, painted green or in the wood." (1) In fact the first wide use of Windsors appears to be outdoors, and their use in the gardens of Windsor castle may well have lead to their name.
By the middle of the 18th century two grades of Windsors were being mass produced, mostly in High Wycombe near London: plain, strong, inexpensive chairs for use in cottages, farm houses and schools; and high-style Windsors made of woods such as yew and fruitwoods and decorated with carving, fret-work and upholstery, and finished with paint and gilding.
Pilgrims Come to America
On December 11, 1620, an old merchant ship called the Mayflower landed in New Plymouth in what would become Massachusetts. On board were 41 families -- not a haphazard crowd of passengers, but a community seeking religious freedom. They came laden with books, household furnishings, livestock and staple foods. There were carpenters among them, and joiners and smiths, with the tools of their trades.
The Puritans also brought an 80,000 acre land grant, fishing rights, permission to trade with the Indians and the authority to create a system of self-government. This last they set down on November 21, while still far out on the Atlantic Ocean, in a document called the Mayflower Compact (3) : To "covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation...." They were still, however, "the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c."
They had arrived in a land of unparalleled bounty. Besides the plants and crops that they brought with them they were introduced to a true wonder, maize, or "Indian Corn." Furthermore, there were chestnuts, walnuts, butternuts, beech, hazel and hickory nuts. There was plum, cherry, mulberry and persimmon, as well as pumpkins, squashes, beans, rice, melons, tomatoes, huckleberries, blackberries, strawberries, black raspberries, cranberries, gooseberries and grapes, all growing wild or easily cultivated. There was game, large and small, and fish and seafood.
But most of all they had the "liberty of vast size"(4). Indeed, it was this sheer space that brought settlers in the first place. England was small (still is) and cramped, and even a skilled young man had no future there if he didn't own land, and acquiring some was more than he could ever hope for. In America, however, he could earn higher wages and his raw materials were cheap and abundant. And he could likely get land as well.
So there was no shortage of skilled craftsmen in the colonies. There was wood, plentiful and cheap. Water-driven sawmills soon became common, especially in New England. Glass and pottery were difficult to ship, so the glass makers and potters went instead. By the mid-17th century there were dozens of categories of craftsmen in the colonies, drawn from lands of scarcity to one of plenty, where resources were in abundance and human labor was in demand. Indeed, workers were valued far more in the colonies than anywhere in Europe.
The early colonists were not only intensely religious, but also politically astute and independent-minded, accustomed to thinking things out for themselves. Furthermore, the crown did not pay close attention to what was going on in its colonies. It awarded charters, then let the colonists get about their business. And electing people was one of their first tasks. Most colonies had some sort of assembly within a year of their inception. And their governors, whether elected or appointed, operated independently of England. This derived from an old English tradition, the relative independence of local governments, sometimes referred to as "Self-government by the King's Command."
So the seeds for what was to come in the next century were sown early. Looking at it now, from our comfortable perch, you'd think they would have seen it coming.
The following is reprinted with permission from "Plimoth Plantation," a living history museum of 17th-century Plymouth in southeastern Massachussetts.
The Wampanoag People
The name "Wampanoag" means "eastern people," or "people of the dawn." Some of these Native American Peoples still live on or near the fields, forests and waters where their ancestors settled thousands of years ago. In the seventeenth century they were known by the names of their separate territories, such as Pokanoket, Patuxet and Nauset. Each community had authority over a well-defined territory from which the People derived their livelihood through a seasonal round of fishing, planting, harvesting and hunting. The Wampanoag way of life fostered a harmonious relationship between the People and their natural environment, both physical and spiritual. They were united by a common language and a shared respect for the traditions and the elders of their nation.
The work of making a living was organized on a family level. At times families gathered together, as in the spring to fish or in early winter to hunt, and in the summer they separated to cultivate individual planting fields. Boys were schooled in the ways of the woods, where a man’s skill at hunting and ability to survive under all conditions were vital to his family’s well-being. Native women were trained from girlhood to work diligently in the fields and around the family wetu.
To learn more about the Wampanoag People, please refer to the other links on this page.
Sources
- "Antique Windsor Chairs - Definition"
- "Origin and Evolution of Windsors"
- The Mayflower Compact
- A History of the American People, Paul Johnson, HarperCollins, 1997
- "Plimoth Plantation"
Further Links:
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