Unstamped "Philip Clissett" chair attributions

Unstamped armchair attributed to Philip Clissett (image permissions sought).

Some time ago, I saw this chair on the Antiques Atlas site, advertised as "by Philip Clissett". It's a very handsome chair but, while I will agree that the chair has many of the characteristics of Clissett's work (such as the general construction and the arm support turnings), there are several reasons for NOT accepting the attribution. The main reasons are as follows:

1. There is no "PC" stamp anywhere on the chair. Without this, and recognising that several other makers (e.g. John Warrender and William Cole) made chairs identical to Clissett's, you need good provenance information to make the attribution - e.g. an original bill of sale.
2. Although many stamped Philip Clissett chairs are known, and a reasonable number of Warrender and Cole chairs, none are identical, or even close, in form to the chair in the photograph, as set out below.
3. Stamped armchairs never have arms like the chair in the photograph which are club-shaped with rounded ends.
4. Stamped armchairs never have backs exactly like the chair in the photograph, in particular the dowel top rail, but the spindles are also atypical.
5. This chair is made entirely in some sort of fruitwood. I've never seen a chair by Clissett entirely made in fruitwood (doesn't mean there aren't any). They are usually entirely in ash, though arms and the flat top rail can be in cherry or some other timber.
6. I've seen several chairs that share some characteristics with this one (including being entirely in fruitwood), but they never have the workshop scribe marks that Clissett used to mark the position of side stretcher mortices. While I haven't had my hands on this particular chair, I think it's unlikely that it has these marks. (OK, this is speculation, and doesn't really count.)

The existence of a group of chairs that share characteristics with this one, and many characteristics with Clissett's output, suggests strongly a very local tradition that Clissett was part of. Given that I've logged a total of seventeen chairmakers with the Clissett name, and a total of twenty-one chairmakers in the extended family, the existence of a very local tradition isn't surprising. So are these unstamped chairs coming from other members of the Clissett family? Quite possibly, but this remains an unproven hypothesis until further evidence is found.

It's quite possible that Clissett didn't stamp all his chairs. Indeed, I'm aware of two very unusual chairs in the Hereford Museum where one is stamped "PC" and the other, which is identical, is not. But this doesn't mean that any chair that looks like it could be by Clissett can be attributed to him. As I said before, without the provenance, this is just misleading. As always... Caveat emptor!

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