Clissett ladderback arm chairs atChetwynd House, Clarice Cliff's
home, during the 1940s.
In an earlier post, I put up photographs showing Philip Clissett’s chairs being used by the well-known Arts & Crafts architects Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin. They seem to have first used Clissett’s chairs to furnish a house called “Northwood” that they built in 1899 for Mr C.F. Goodfellow at Northwood Lane, Clayton, Nr Stoke-on-Trent.* Photographs published with this article (see below) show Clissett’s chairs – highback armchairs and both five- and three-rung side chairs – scattered throughout the house, in the entrance hall, living room and dining room. Charles Frederick Goodfellow, as part of Goodfellow, Birks & Co, founded the well-known Vine Pottery in Stoke-on-Trent in 1894.
In 1926, the Goodfellow house was bought by another Potteries businessman, Colley Shorter of Shorter & Son Ltd. Shorter renamed the house “Chetwynd House”, and lived there until his death in 1963. Ceramics enthusiasts will know Shorter’s name because his factory produced Clarice Cliff’s iconic wares and, in 1940, he married the designer.
What has this got to do with Philip Clissett? Only that, it seems, Shorter bought “Chetwynd House” with many or all of the original furnishings, including the Clissett chairs. The photograph at the head of this post shows Clissett’s chairs in the house during Clarice’s time, with Cliff-designed Shorter products on the dresser behind.**
In 1926, the Goodfellow house was bought by another Potteries businessman, Colley Shorter of Shorter & Son Ltd. Shorter renamed the house “Chetwynd House”, and lived there until his death in 1963. Ceramics enthusiasts will know Shorter’s name because his factory produced Clarice Cliff’s iconic wares and, in 1940, he married the designer.
What has this got to do with Philip Clissett? Only that, it seems, Shorter bought “Chetwynd House” with many or all of the original furnishings, including the Clissett chairs. The photograph at the head of this post shows Clissett’s chairs in the house during Clarice’s time, with Cliff-designed Shorter products on the dresser behind.**
The living room at "Chetwynd House",then known as "Northwood", soon
after it was built in 1899. Clissett
ladderback to left.
Clarice died in 1972, and the contents of the house were auctioned off. Of course, we don’t know whether the chairs were kept until then; does anyone know what happened to Clarice Cliff’s Clissett chairs?
*Parker, B. (1910). Modern country houses in England: number three. The Craftsman, Vol 18(3), pp324-334; also plates B84 and B85 in The Studio Yearbook of Decorative Art 1908. [Thanks to Paul Shutler for drawing the latter to my attention.]
**This photograph appears in Griffin, L. (1998). The Fantastic Flowers of Clarice Cliff. Pavilion, London. [The ownership and whereabouts of this photograph is not clear. If anyone knows, or if there are copyright issues, please let me know.]
*Parker, B. (1910). Modern country houses in England: number three. The Craftsman, Vol 18(3), pp324-334; also plates B84 and B85 in The Studio Yearbook of Decorative Art 1908. [Thanks to Paul Shutler for drawing the latter to my attention.]
**This photograph appears in Griffin, L. (1998). The Fantastic Flowers of Clarice Cliff. Pavilion, London. [The ownership and whereabouts of this photograph is not clear. If anyone knows, or if there are copyright issues, please let me know.]
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