Regional Furniture  

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Backjournals

 

 

Back issues of Journals are priced at £15.00 each, (£12.00 to members), inclusive of P&P to UK addresses.  Email: regionalfurnituresociety for details.

 Previous Journals have included the following articles: 

[2007][2006][2005][2004][2003][2002][2001][2000][1999][1998][1997]

[1996][1995][1994][1993][1992][1991][1990][1989][1988][1987]

For Current Journal Click Here

2008

 London Furniture

·         Apprenticeships in the London Joiners' Company, 1640-1720.  Laurie Lindey

·         At Home with the London Middling Sort - The Inventory Evidence for Furnishings and Room Use, 1570-1720.  Eleanor John

·         Cane Chairs, Their Manufacture and use in London, 1670-1730.  David Dewing

·         Furniture Woods in London and Provincial Furniture, 1700-1800. Adam Bowett

·         Windsor Chair Making on the Outskirts of Eighteenth Century London; William Webb of Newington and Henry Webb of Hammersmith.  Robert Parrott

·         London's First Commercial Sawmill.  Adam Bowett

The notion of covering London in a journal devoted to regional furniture may at first seem contradictory, but arguably makes perfect sense.  Regional or provincial furniture is often defined less be what it is than by what it is not.  In other words, London, metropolitan or fashionable furniture is often the yardstick by which regionality is measured, and the difference between provincial and vernacular furniture is judged by the degree to which a given piece departs from the metropolitan standard.  How then can regional furniture be assessed without considering London, and vice versa?  In regional furniture terms, London has always been the proverbial elephant in the room.

A second good reason to look at London is that it can in a perfectly valid sense be regarded as a region of Britain, with its own geographic, economic and social conditions and its own aesthetic values.  In this light, it is no less worthy of study than any other region.  

Adam Bowett, Guest Editor 2008

2007  

The 2007 Journal focused upon furniture in churches, the contents are as follows:

  • 'Kirk Furnishings: The Liturgical Material Culture of the Scottish Reformation', Stephen Jackson

  • 'Church Furniture in Medieval English and Welsh Parish Churches', Charles Tracy

  • 'Church Woodwork in England', Hugh Harrison

  • 'Medieval Tracery Carved Clamp Fronted Chests: The 'Kentish Gothic' Chests of Rainham, Faversham and Canterbury', Christopher Pickvance

  • 'Furniture and Woodwork in the Churchwardens' Accounts, Charing, Kent, 1590-1635', Chris Currie

  • ''The Benches in Ye Quire' Furniture from Wimbourne Minster, Dorset', Brenda D. Flint

  • 'An Account of Some Eighteenth Century Communion Tables in Dorset', Michael and Polly Legg

  • 'Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Century Church Furniture in Gloucestershire', David Wilson

  • 'The Fourteenth Century Choir Stalls at Gloucester Cathedral', Peter Lindfield

  • 'Seventeen Chairs from Dullas Church, Herefordshire', David Jones

  • 'Thirteenth Century Painted Church Furniture and its Later Influence', John Boram

  • 'Furnishing Fort Augustus Abbey, Inverness-shire, 1878-1916', Christina Anderson

  • 'Church Furniture in Australia: The Work of F. W. Tod, 1879-1958', Alan Perry

  • 'The Case for a Parochial Library', Noel Riley

  • 'Recent Initiatives to Increase Awareness of Significant Church Furniture', Peter Stone

 
2006  

The 2006 Journal was entitled A Dictionary of Norfolk Furniture Makers, 1700-1840 by John Stabler.  It is also available in book form.  Details
2005 
  • 'Observations on the Earliest Known Windsor Chairs', Robert Parrott.
  • 'John Pitt (1714-59), Thames Valley Windsor Chair Maker', Robert Parrott and Michael Harding Hill.
  • 'Irish Sideboards', David Jones and Fergus Purdy.
  • 'Robert Lorimer and Scott Morton & Company', Christina M Anderson.
  • 'Robert Lorimer's Use of Timber', David Jones.
  • SHORTER NOTICE:
'A Dug-Out Chair from the South Lake District', Liz Hancock.

2004

  • Windsor Chairs from the Vale of York. Adam Bowett.
  • The Short Arm Experiment. John Boram.
  • Furniture Makers in Eighteenth Century Aberdeen: an Introduction. Janet Brinsden.
  • Carluke Dressers. David Jones.
  • Chests, Coffers and Trunks in East Anglia, 1650 - 1730: a Step Towards Definition. Janet Sleep.
  • A Lakeland Chest Dated 1683. Michael Bucknole.
  • The Perceval Compton Windsor Chair. Diana Taylor.
  • Select Bibliography of Books and Articles on Furniture published between July 1994 and June 2004. Ivan Sparkes.

2003

The 2003 Journal was titled 'Roger Warner: Memoirs of a Twentieth Century Antique Dealer.' It is also available in book form at the price of £20.00. For full details of contents click here.

 

 

2002

The 2002 Journal focused upon Scottish furniture comprising five articles of original research into furniture connected to Scotland, and a complete reprint of 'The Glasgow Cabinet Maker's Book of Prices' 1806. The contents are as follows:

 
  • Introduction: The Glasgow Book of Prices for Manufacturing Cabinet Work, 1806. David Jones
  • Reprint of the Glasgow Book of Prices for Manufacturing Cabinet Work, 1806.
  • Walter Newall of Dumfries, Stephen Jackson and Marion Stewart.
  • 'Quilled on the Cann': Alexander Hart, Scottish Cabinet Maker, Radical and Convict, John Hawkins.
  • Chair Making in the Northern Counties of Scotland and in New Zealand, David Hutchinson.
  • Research Methods in the Outer Hebridies, Caroline Hirst.
  • William Craigie and the Furnishing of Melsetter House, Hoy, Annette Carruthers

 
2001
  • Cabin Furnishings on Canal Barges of North Western England, M. K. Stammers
  • Joseph Matthias of Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, 1771-1839, Luke Millar
  • A North Wales Interior by Cornelius Varley, CatherineWeston.
  • Johnson & Appleyards Ltd of Sheffield: A Victorian Family Business, JulieBanham.
  • English Furniture Locks, J.A.Berry.
  • Darvel Chair Update, Stephen Hunter
  • The Sitter Revealed: A Portrait of George Smith, John Evan Bedford.
2000
  • How to make a Borders Box Bed, Daniel Maudlin
  • Midland Lockers and other Furniture for the Settle-Carlisle Railway, David Jones and Sarah Medlam
  • English West Country Cupboards, Gabriel Olive
  • An Artist of the Vernacular: William Collingwood's Lake District Interiors, Noel Riley
  • The Furnishings of Queensberry House, 1700-25, John Lowrey
  • Furniture in Uffculme Inventories, 1576-1762, Alison Lee
  • Don Carolis: A Case Study of a Nineteenth-Century Colombo Furniture Maker, Robin Jones
  • The Lum Chest: A Connecticut Yankee in Scotland? Mary Ann Apicella

1999

  • Lightning Stools, Christopher Claxton Stevens
  • Eighteenth Century Fancy Chairs from High Wycombe, John Boram
  • Welsh Cradles, Margaret Roberts
  • English West Country Tables and Forms, Gabriel Olive
  • A Lake District Cupboard, Noel Riley
  • Frame Making in Edinburgh 1790-1830, Laura Houliston
  • Irish Eighteenth-Century Looking Glasses, Nessa Roche
  • David Hughes 1847-1923, Cabinet Maker and Ship Carver of Liverpool, M. K. Stammers
  • Malaysian Furniture, Daniel Maudlin
  • James Honey: A Wright from Perth in Colonial Williamsburg, L. W. S. Petznick

1998

The 1998 Journal concentrated on the work of Gillow's of Lancaster and included the following articles:

  • Gillow at Denton Hall, Yorkshire, Christopher Gilbert
  • The Jamaica Trade: Gillow and the Use of Mahogany in the Eighteenth Century, Adam Bowett
  • Makers Labels and Stamps Used on Gillow and Waring & Gillow Furniture 1770-1960, Susan Stuart
  • Gillow Furnishings and the Tatton Park Library, 1811, John Hardy
  • Eighteenth Century Gillow Furniture Discovered at Tatton Park, Susan Stuart
  • Gillow in Scotland 1770-1830, David Jones and Jacqueline Urquahart
  • A Group of Seat Furniture Stamped RE, Christopher Claxton Stevens
  • A Select Bibliography of Books and Articles on Furniture Published Between July 1994 and December 1997, Ivan Sparkes

Library writing table made by Gillows in 1778 for Sir James Ibbetson, Denton Hall, now at Judges' Lodgings Museum, Lancaster.
Sotheby's

Designs for a library table from Thomas Chippendale's Director, 1754, pl. lvi.
The Chippendale Society

Mahogany Secretaire and bookcase by Bowen, Lammas Street, Carmarthen, c. 1795.
Catherine Rivers

1997

  • Mr Bowen's Secretaire and Bookcase: A Labelled Carmarthen Piece, c. 1795, Luke Millar
  • Furniture Associated with Robert Burns, David Jones
  • Scottish Masonic Furniture, Stephen Jackson
  • The Salisbury Mayoral Chair of 1795, Nicola McLaughlin
  • Arthur Foley: A Nineteenth-Century Furniture Manufacturer in Salisbury, Robin Jones
  • Wiltshire Windsors, Gabriel Olive
  • A Painted Elmwood Chest from North Somerset, John Weallans
  • Tudor Furniture from the Mary Rose, David Knell
  • Canopied Cupboards of the Aire and Calder Valleys, West Yorkshire, Peter H. Thornborrow.

1996

  • Irish Vernacular Furniture: Inventories and Illustrations in Interdisciplinary Methodology, Claudia Kinmonth
  • Nineteenth Century Carved Ebony Furniture from Sri Lanka: Methods of Interpretation, Robin Jones
  • Problems in Identifying Early Australian Colonial Furniture, Rebecca Daniels
  • 'Wonderful Walker': Portrait of an Eighteenth Century Cumbrian Furniture Maker, Susan Stuart
  • The Notebook of John Davies, Cabinet Maker, Carmarthen, 1844-55, Luke Millar
  • Scottish Chair Making: The Case of Francis East & Co. and East Brothers, Dundee, David Jones
  • Furniture Designs from New Zealand: The Dunedin Iron and Woodware Company's Illustrated Catalogue, Rebecca Rhodes
  • A Hamilton Hearth, David Jones
  • Baking Oatcake, Yorkshire, John Boram.
  

1995

  • Chairmaking at Low Cringles in Yorkshire, Christopher Gilbert
  • Eskdale Chairs, Susan Stuart & David Jones
  • Trading Networks of The Chiltern Chairmakers, John Boram
  • Chairmakers and Apprentices: Reminiscences of Working Conditions and Traditions in High Wycombe, Ivan Sparkes
  • Some Windsor Chairs at Trinity House, Newcastle upon Tyne, Thomas Faulkner
  • Darvel Chairs, David Jones
  • Gillow's 'Neat and Strong Windsor Chairs' for Home and Export in the Eighteenth Century, Susan Stuart
  • Sussex Chairs, Janet Pennington
  • Oak Chairs from Ulster, Fionnuala Carragher
  • The Blackstone Chair, Stephen Jackson
  • The Leeds Cabinet and Chair-Makers Book of Prices (1791), A Re-print of the Chair-Making Specifications
  • The Preston Cabinet and Chair-Makers Book of Prices (1802), A Re-print of the Chair-Making Specifications
  • The Whitehaven Book of Prices (1810)
  • A Select Bibliography of Books and Articles on Furniture, Published between July 1990 and June 1994, Ivan Sparkes.

Oak Chair, Ballymoney, Co. Antrim
UFTM collection 514, 1994

Detail of Cresting Rail

 

1994

  • "A Brute and Beastly Shire?" Dated Furniture in Lincolnshire, Anthony Wells-Cole
  • The Glastonbury Chair, Gabriel Olive
  • Preaching Tents, David Jones
  • Three Masonic Chairs at Minerva Lodge, Ashton-under-Lyne, Christopher Gilbert
  • The Vigani Specimen Cabinet by John Austin, a Cambridge Joiner, Adam Bowett
  • Samuel Peat, a Chichester Cabinet Maker, Margaret Ponsonby
  • "25th December 1889, Christmas Day Lost", Furniture Making in Meirionydd, Richard Bebb
  • A Note on Furniture Making in Rural Fife, John Frew
  • Furniture Making in County Clare: The O'Halloran Brothers, Dabheoc Rynne
  • A Common Chair from West Wales, Luke Millar
  

Dressing Table by John Elliot, Leicester & Philadelphia, 1730-50, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia USA.

 

1993

  • An Anthology of Regional Furniture with Maker's Identification

1992

  • The Laburnum Tradition in Scotland, David Jones
  • At the Sign of the Pelican, Sebastian Pryke
  • A History of Collecting Vernacular Furniture in Scotland, Lindsay Macbeth
  • Highland Dressers and the Process of Innovation, R. Ross Noble
  • Driftwood Furniture from Shetland, David Learmont
  • Irish Cradles: An Introductory Look, Fionnuala Carragher
  • Carved Oak Furniture from Tudor Wales, Richard Bebb
  • Some Plain Oak Farmhouse Chests from South Wales, Luke Millar
  • The Gower Coffor Bach, Philip M. Havard
  • The Welston Coffer, Philip M. Havard
  • A Vale of Glamorgan Chair, Luke Millar

WalnutCradle, Newtownards and Bangor, Co. Down, UTFM Collection 955. 1965

Press Cupboard made for Thomas & Ellen Meller, probably Sheffield,1681, Sotheby's

1991

  • Late Georgian Wooden-Bottomed Chairs in South Wales, Luke Millar
  • Furniture Terminology in Post Medieval Middle-Class Inventories, Victor Chinnery
  • Parts and Materials: A Sawmill in the 1820's, Sarah Medlam
  • Some East Anglian Chests, Penny Rumble
  • Sixteenth-Century Furniture in the Castle Dairy, Kendal, Susan Bourne and Susan Stuart
  • The Amos Catton Pattern Book, Christopher Gilbert
  • The Wheelers of Arncroach: A Family of Furniture Makers in Fife, Lindsay Macbeth
  • Box Beds in Eastern Scotland, David Jones
  • Furnishing the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow Style, 1809, Celine Blair and David Jones
  • English Newspaper Advertisements as a Source of Furniture History, John Stabler
  • A Labelled Liverpool Clock Case, Christopher Gilbert
  • An American Tavern Table, Gerald W.R. Ward

1990

  • Oak Furniture in Norfolk, Anthony Wells-Cole
  • The Board-Seated Turned Chairs Project, Robert F. Trent
  • West Country Chests, Coffers And Boxes, Gabriel Olive
  • A Sixteenth-Century Oak Cupboard at the University of St Andrews, David Jones
  • The Extraordinary Billhead of Francis Brodie, Sebastian Pryke
  • An Early Cabinet Maker's Club in Belfast and their Book of Prices, 1822, David Jones
  • A Painted Corner Cupboard from Hanley, Staffordshire, 1827, Bernard D. Cotton
  • Furniture at Corfe Castle, Gabriel Olive
  • Survival or Revival? The Problems of the Continuation of Traditional Furniture Making into the Twentieth Century, Nicholas Moore
  • A Signed Welsh Chest of Drawers, Donald Blakeley
  • A Salop Friendly Society Membership Card, Simon Jervis

Corner Cupboard by Geoge Boulton, Hanley Staffordshire,1827, Dr. B. D. Cotton.

1989

  • Irish Vernacular Furniture, Bernard D. Cotton
  • Scottish Cabinet Maker's Price Books, 1805-1825, David Jones
  • Dressers in the West Country, Gabriel Olive
  • A Study of the Edinburgh Furnishing Trade taken from Contemporary Press Notices, 1708-1790, Sebastian Pryke
  • Owen Fitzpatrick, a Birkenhead Cabinet Maker 'In Ordinary', John Boram
  • A Labelled Whitehaven Cabinet, Christopher Gilbert
  

Design from an anonymous English trade catalogue, c. 1905, Pratt collection,Temple Newsam House, Leeds

1988

  • The Cupboard of Rychard and Margerye Churche, Susan Bourne
  • 'A Last Outpost of the Known World': Vernacular Furniture in Tudor and Stuart Cornwall, Anthony Wells-Cole
  • Prices for Workmen in Lancaster - the Earliest Surviving Cabinet Makers' Price List, Susan E. Stuart
  • Furniture by Local Makers at Doncaster Mansion House, Christopher Gilbert
  • Unconventional Windsor's from the Cotswolds, Bernard D. Cotton
  • An Alehouse Inventory of 1765, Luke Millar
  • Scotch Chests, David Jones
  • Shadford, Shirley and the Caistor Workshop, Bernard D. Cotton
  • 'Common' Chairs from the Norwich Chair Makers' price Book of 1801, Gerry Cotton

 

1987

  • Regional Furniture Studies in the late 18th and 19th-century Traditions: An Introduction to Research Methods, Bernard D. Cotton
  • Oak Furniture and the Towneley Family of Lancashire, Susan Bourne
  • A Painted Bed dated 1724, Anthony Wells-Cole
  • The Chairs of Sutherland and Caithness: A Northern Tradition in Highland Chair-making? R. Ross Noble
  • Furniture in Steyning, a Sussex Parish, 1587-1707: A Study of Documentary Sources, Janet Pennington and Joyce Sleight
  • 'To a Mahogany Case - the Best Sort': Influences on the design of 18th-century North Lancashire Clock Cases, Susan Stuart
  • Workhouse Furniture, Christopher Gilbert
  • A Chester Cabinet Maker's Specification Book, Nicholas Moore
  • Connecticut Plain High-Style Seating of the 18th-century, Robert F. Trent

Joined chair with loose leather seat. Saybrook Connecticut, 1740-70. The Connecticut Historical Society.

 

 

© Regional Furniture Society -  2008