Armchair
Skull
Category
Furniture
Date
1832
Materials
Painted wood, cane, metal loops
Measurements
110 x 56 x 56 cm
Place of origin
High Wycombe
Order this imageCollection
Hughenden, Buckinghamshire
NT 428650.1
Summary
A painted open armchair in the Gothic taste, English, 1832. Made, reputedly by the High Wycombe firm of Skull, to carry Disraeli in the 1832 by-election if he was successful and painted in his election colours of cream and pink - unfortunately, however, he did not win. It has two carrying poles to slot through the metal brackets attached to the seat rails (428650.2 and 428650.3). The back pierced with pointed arches and quatrefoils below an undulating toprail with four acorn finials, the arms overswept and with tapering front supports, the caned seat standing on octagonal tapering legs, the carrying poles still available. The 1955 Guide book describes it as the ‘Chair in Disraeli’s colours-pink and white-made by Skull of High Wycombe to chair him at the High Wycombe election in 1832.’ However, the attribution has yet to be established firmly. The chair is in the fashionable Gothic taste of the day.
Full description
The name Skull was associated with chair and furniture manufacture in High Wycombe for most of the 19th century. Following in their father Charles' (1780-1851) footsteps, who was a chair japanner, brothers Edwin (1810-1873) and Walter (1816-1893) Skull both had businesses in the chair-making industry, the latter handing the business on to his son and then grandsons in due course. The firm of Edwin Skull had 30 employees in 1851 and 60 in 1861. They produced a very comprehensive range of chairs including the hoop-back, the smoker's bow, the high-back, 'fancy' chairs, rush-seat chairs and campaign chairs. Their 1849 catalogue provides the earliest anthology of illustrations of such chair styles from High Wycombe and is an important record for the industry. By the 1930s Edwin Skull had been taken over by a competitor called Furniture Industries Ltd. which soon became ERCOL.
Makers and roles
Skull
References
Cotton 1990: Bernard D. Cotton, The English Regional Chair, Woodbridge 1990, p.87