Philip Clissett, Chairmaker
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Philip Clissett chair in Madrid exhibition

30/11/2017

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Picture
I've just received this wonderful catalogue for an exhibition currently being held at the Fundación Juan March in Madrid; titled (in English) William Morris and company: the Arts and Crafts movement in Great Britain. A Philip Clissett ladderback chair is item number 219 in the exhibition, and features in two further photographs in the catalogue, a shot of the meeting hall at the Art Workers Guild, and a fabulous, full-page c1903 image of Emery Walker's house in Hammersmith Terrace, London. This exhibition comes hot on the heels of the 2014-15 National Portrait Gallery exhibition Anarchy and Beauty. William Morris and his Legacy 1860-1960, which also featured Clissett's chair several times in its catalogue, as well as on display.

The catalogue for the Madrid exhibition is an extremely well illustrated overview of the Arts and Crafts Movement, and runs to nearly 500 pages. Judging by the website, the exhibition would be well worth a visit if you're in Madrid any time up to 21 January 2018. After that, it will be in Barcelona at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya from 22 February to 21 May 2018.

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Upcoming Exhibition, "Working from the Wood" at Tinsmiths, Ledbury, July 2017

23/2/2017

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I'm told that Tinsmiths of Ledbury, Herefordshire is staging an exhibition during July 2017 of handmade chairs. Tinsmiths hold annual craft exhibitions, and the subject this year is to celebrate the legacy of Philip Clissett in his bicentennial year. Currently, the chairmakers taking part will be Mike Abbott, Sebastian Cox, Gudrun Leitz, Koji Katsuragi, Neil Taylor and Lawrence Neal. Lawrence, of course, still makes a version of the famous Clissett ladderback chair.

The exhibition will run from 30th June until 30th July. I don't know more about it, but you can get further information by emailing press@tinsmiths.co.uk, or keep an eye on the Tinsmiths' Facebook page.
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Philip Clissett chair in William Morris Anarchy & Beauty exhibition

21/1/2015

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Picture
The National Portrait Gallery's exhibition, Anarchy & Beauty: William Morris and His Legacy, 1860-1960, finished recently. It was a surprise to see a Philip Clissett ladderback armchair prominently displayed amongst the portraits.

For those who didn't get to see the exhibition, the Gallery has kindly allowed us to show a photograph of the chair in situ at the exhibition (see below). The chair was on loan from the Cheltenham Museum & Art Gallery, but was once the property of Ernest Barnsley. The nearby items include portraits of Sir Ebenezer Howard, C.F.A. Voysey and Octavia Hill; the Kelmscott Chaucer cabinet (designed by Voysey) is close by.

A heavily illustrated book accompanies the exhibition, written by Fiona MacCarthy who also curated the exhibition. Yet another surprise – a photograph of Philip Clissett's chair gets a full page to itself. The only other piece of furniture to receive the full-page treatment is a Sussex chair, as sold by Morris & Co.

According to MacCarthy, Clissett's chairs became “a popular equivalent of the Sussex chair … as basic in design and universally affordable”, and “became a potent symbol of the simple life”. They also became “the chair of choice for the Garden City home”, based on their use by the partnership of Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin (as discussed some time ago in this blog).

While it's great to see Clissett's chairs so well appreciated in a major exhibition and book, and amongst such illustrious company, I do have one or two niggles...

Clissett would never have called himself a “bodger”, neither would anyone else have done so. He was a chairmaker who made entire chairs from scratch in his own workshop in Herefordshire, rather than turned parts of Windsor chairs in a woodland in the Chilterns .

And in what sense had Ernest Gimson “rediscovered” the ladderback rush-seated “Clissett” chair, and “revived and popularised the design, [in] 1891”? What about the role of Arts & Crafts pioneer James MacLaren who modified Clissett's traditional design, and introduced the chairs to the Art Workers' Guild before Gimson ever saw them there? Personally, I don't believe there is any evidence that Ernest Gimson either made this particular chair, or produced designs for it, though his new designs inspired by it are well known.

Picture
Anarchy & Beauty: William Morris and His Legacy, 1860-1960.
16 October 2014 until 11 January 2015 National Portrait Gallery, London.
© National Portrait Gallery, London
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