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IF YOU ARE HERE BECAUSE you think your chair might have been made by Philip Clissett, please have a look at the Chair pages (menu above). If you have a ladderback chair that might be by Philip Clissett, then please read about how to distinguish Clissett's work from Edward Gardiner's. If you have a spindleback chair without a maker's mark, then please read this blog post. If all else fails, do get in touch. Otherwise, read on...
 FEATURED CHAIR: A possibly unique miniature chair by Philip Clissett, measuring only six inches across the front legs. [Photo courtesy of Anna Lawrie]
Until the 18th century, poorer folk in England had only the simplest sort of furniture, with little or no account taken of bodily comfort. Then, and through much of the following century, quite sophisticated chairs were produced in a wide range of regional and local patterns by craftsmen chairmakers usually working on their own account.
Of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of craftsmen who produced these "common chairs", Philip Clissett is probably the most well known. Born into a chair-making family in 1813, he followed his father's, and his grandfather's, occupation producing chairs from green ash turned on a pole lathe. The Clissett family's chair-making tradition dates back to well before the 1770s, and probably to at least the 1750s. Philip might well have been condemned to obscurity if he had not continued to work into old age. By chance, during the 1880s, his work was introduced to the developing Arts and Crafts movement. He made a large set of chairs for the newly formed Art Workers Guild, and eighty or so of his chairs still grace their Meeting Hall in London. He taught designer and architect, Ernest Gimson, how to make chairs on a lathe, and many of the Arts & Crafts cognoscenti furnished their homes with Clissett's chairs. More recently, Clissett's work has inspired a new generation of amateur and professional chair-makers. The research presented on this website was inspired by the many publications about Philip Clissett that contained obviously poor quality or incorrect information about him - often with no indication of where that information had come from. Also by the frequent misattribution of Clissett's chairs to others, principally Ernest Gimson or his chairmaker Edward Gardiner, but also (surprisingly) Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Here, I have done my best to put this right by using careful research, always detailing where evidence came from. Consequently, it has been possible not only to correct the Clissett story, but also to extend it, and to vastly increase the known range of his work. I hope you enjoy it! Use the menu at the head of this page to learn more about Philip Clissett and his chairs. You can discover details of Clissett's life, his working methods and range of chair styles, associated chair-makers, and Clissett family genealogy. The best way to find out more about regional chairs in general is to read Bill Cotton's wonderful book The English Regional Chair. Make sure you check out the Regional Furniture Society as well. Using information from this site
If you would like to use information or images from this site, for any purpose, then please check out the Terms and Conditions first.
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Philip Clissett depended on freshly cut timber from local woodlands for his craft. You can help conserve woodlands today by supporting the Woodland Trust. If you have enjoyed this site, then please make a donation to this charity. Thanks!
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© T.A. Rowell 2023
