Philip Clissett, Chairmaker
  • Home
  • Biography
    • Philip's life story
    • Photographs
  • Family history
  • Chairs
    • Spindleback chairs
    • Ladderback chairs
    • Special chairs
    • Relatives' chairs
    • Chairmaking
    • Chairmakers
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • T&C etc
    • Copyright
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy

Philip Clissett chair in William Morris Anarchy & Beauty exhibition

21/1/2015

0 Comments

 
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
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Author

    Terry Rowell

    Copyright

    This blog is copyright, and the intellectual property of its author.
    Protected by Copyscape Duplicate Content Detection Tool
    © T.A. Rowell 2022

    Archives

    February 2022
    January 2022
    October 2021
    August 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    March 2019
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    July 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013

    Categories

    All
    Arnold Dunbar Smith
    Arts & Crafts Movement
    Art Workers Guild
    Barnard's Inn
    Barry Parker
    Bedford Lemere & Co
    Bending Timber
    Cecil Brewer
    Chairmaking
    Chairs
    Charles Rennie Mackintosh
    Clarice Cliff
    Collections
    Ernest Gimson
    Exhibition
    Garden City
    Geffrye Museum
    George Frampton
    Hereford
    High Chairs
    James Maclaren
    John Warrender
    Joseph Holland Tringham
    Ladderback
    Letchworth
    Longdon
    Museums
    National Portrait Gallery
    Newport
    Painting
    Raymond Unwin
    Samuel Clissett
    Spindleback
    Stool
    Tools
    William Cole
    William Morris
    Wilson Bidwell
    Workshop

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.