Glastonbury chair
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1850 - 1900
Materials
Oak
Measurements
85 cm (H); 57 cm (W); 55 cm (D)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Montacute House, Somerset
NT 597620
Caption
Glastonbury chairs are based on a seat made for the last Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey which he used during his trial in the dissolution of the monastery.
Summary
An oak 'Glastonbury' armchair, English, second half of 19th century. The rectangular back with a central carved panel below a rail, shaped open arms on X frame folding legs with pegged joints, the arms and top rail with a Latin inscription carved in gothic script. 'Glastonbury chair' is a nineteenth-century term probably referring to a chair made for Richard Whiting (d.1539), the last Abbot of Glaston(bury). This chair is a copy of one in the Bishop's Palace, Wells which is believed to date from the second quarter of the sixteenth century and may be the 'original' chair from which the design came.
Provenance
Provenance uncertain.