Sir George Frampton's Clissett chair

The sculptor Sir George Frampton (1860-1928) is best known for the statue of Peter Pan  in Kensington Gardens, London. Frampton was a member of the Art Workers Guild from 1887, a committee member from 1893 to 1895, and Master in 1902. In his early days at the Guild, he would have seen the purchase and installation of many of the ladderback chairs made by Philip Clissett and still used today.  No doubt this is what prompted the purchase of his own Clissett chair.

This photograph from The Tatler’s series “Artists in their Studios” shows him in 1902 – and right in the centre of this image is one of Clissett’s lowback chairs. In about 1910, Frampton moved into a new  house which featured in an article in The Studio in that year, and many of the rooms were illustrated, including his new studio (below). The chair can be seen just to the right of the stove.

These photographs provide just a little more support for Dugald MacColl’s assertion that Clissett’s chairs, once they were on view at the Art Workers Guild “passed … into many houses”. 

References:

Anon. (1902). Artists in their studios: Mr G.J. Frampton, the Royal Academician, in St John’s Wood. The Tatler, 16 April 1902.

Anon. (1910). Recent Designs in Domestic. The Studio, 49, 213-220

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Sir George Frampton's studio, about 1910.