Category: High Chairs

Museums and collections holding Philip Clissett's chairs

10/12/2016

Here is a list of Clissett's chairs in public and private collections. In most cases, these are not on public display, though I have noted when they are. But, to counter that, they are generally shown on the organisation's website. If you want to see chairs that are not on public display, then this is usually possible if you make arrangements ahead of a visit. In some cases, there is an entrance fee – this will be obvious from the organisation's website.

Where possible, I've given a link to the organisation's website, followed by link(s) to any online information about the chair(s) they hold. In some cases, there is no online information, or only some of the chairs they hold have online details (e.g. the Geffrye Museum).

Not all of the information given on these websites is accurate, and it is always best to use this Philip Clissett website to make any statement about him or his work.

If you know of any other museums or collections holding examples of Clissett's work, please contact us.

England: London

Victoria & Albert Museum
Has a ladderback armchair and a very unusual ladderback child's high chair.

Art Workers Guild
The Meeting Hall contains by far the largest collection of Philip Clissett chairs in the world, all ladderback armchairs. That these are by Clissett is well known, so it is odd that the AWG's website now (at the time of writing) claims them to be by Ernest Gimson and his apprentices!

No. 7 Hammersmith Terrace (Emery Walker's House)
Has a single ladderback armchair on display in the dining room (see photo on linked web page).

Geffrye Museum
Has a ladderback chair and two PC-stamped spindleback armchairs.

William Morris Gallery
Has a ladderback armchair.

England: Outside London

Worcestershire County Museum, Hartlebury
Has a ladderback armchair and a number of PC-stamped spindleback chairs.

The Wilson, Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, Cheltenham
Has a ladderback armchair (usually on display as part of the permanent Arts & Crafts exhibition), and a PC-stamped spindleback chair. The ladderback originally belonged to the Arts & Crafts designer Ernest Barnsley.

Herefordshire Museums (Museum Resource and Learning Centre, Hereford)
Has a ladderback armchair and several interesting PC-stamped spindleback and other chairs including two flap-seated prayer chairs.

Butcher Row House Museum, Ledbury
Has a ladderback armchair and a ladderback side chair on permanent display.

New Walk Museum, Leicester
Has a good collection of ladderback armchairs and a side chair (scroll down the linked web page to see several Clissett-made chairs).

Rodmarton Manor, Gloucestershire
Has two ladderback armchairs on display.

Scotland

Hunterian Museum & Art Gallery, Glasgow
Has a single ladderback side chair that's now properly attributed to Clissett/MacLaren, though it's still misattributed to Charles Rennie Mackintosh on the Hunterian web catalogue.

USA

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Has a single ladderback side chair. The online record for this chair used to have a photograph of the chair, but this had been removed at the time of writing. It can, however, be seen on Flickr. Note that some of the information about Clissett is incorrect, as is the species of timber the chair is made from.

Crab Tree Farm, Illinois
Has a ladderback armchair originally misattributed to Ernest Gimson but now properly attributed to Clissett and MacLaren (parts of the original misattribution are still showing on the website at the time of writing).

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Another great find - spindleback high chair

22/11/2014

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I'm always on the lookout for unusual chairs made by Philip Clissett. It's amazing how they turn up. For instance, a pair of children's chairs were once tracked down as a result of a newspaper cutting of unknown date, but probably from the 1960s. Enquiries revealed that the family who originally bought the chairs from Clissett still owned them, and they kindly allowed me to visit and look them over. More recently, a contact through this website resulted in the second known high chair made by Philip.

Now another, very different, high chair has come to light. Searching invaluable.com some time ago, I came across this description of a chair sold ten years ago (2004) in Cirencester:

A 19th century ash and beech child's high chair, the back with three turned spindles flanked by turned arms on turned supports to the single panel seat on turned legs with footboard united by stretchers by Phillip Clissett, bears “P C” stamps to tops of uprights.

Initial email approaches to the auction house didn't get a response. Later, a phone call was more promising, with a helpful offer to contact the buyer on my behalf. A couple of weeks later, I was delighted to get a phone call from the buyer, though my heart sank as he explained that he was a dealer. I assumed he would have sold the chair by know but, as luck would have it, he has a collection of children's chairs and had kept the Clissett – I was welcome to examine it.

The chair is pretty much as described by the auctioneers, though it appears to be ash with an elm seat. Like the most recently discovered high chair, it's a mix of Clissett's usual design elements. He seems to have made an adaptation of one of his simpler spindleback chairs, without the usual separate top rail, and the addition of a footrest and arms.

It's the arms that make this chair interesting. Firstly, the front supports are a miniature version of the tapered support seen in Clissett's famous ladderback armchairs. Secondly, the arms themselves are turned – the only example of a turned arm that I'm aware of in Clissett's entire oeuvre.

There's no way of knowing whether these children's chairs were part of Clissett's day-to-day production. But the fact that two out of three of the surviving chairs have unusual mixes of his design elements suggests that they may have been made to order, perhaps with the customer deciding on the elements they wanted. To see all the known children's chairs made by Clissett, check out the "Special chairs" page.

It's a great pity that we have no way of establishing when these high chairs were made, as it would help answer questions about the origins of the design of the famous Clissett ladderback chairs.

I'm very grateful to Ray & Liz Hunaban of Miscellany Antiques, Malvern, for their kindness in allowing me to examine and photograph their chair. Also to Moore, Allen & Innocent of Cirencester for their help in tracking down this chair.

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Rare Clissett child's high chair

14/8/2014

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A great new find!

Recently, I was contacted through this website by Sally Horsnett. Sally owns this charming high chair which she bought from a farm sale in 1991, close to Philip Clissett's home (many thanks to Sally for allowing me to photograph and publish this image).

This chair is fascinating for being stamped PC on the tops of the back legs - previously unknown in a ladderback. In fact, this chair is a blend of Clissett's two principal styles. The legs are turned in the same way as his spindleback chairs, while the back and arms are based on his ladderbacks. The only other Clissett high chair I have seen has all the usual characteristics of his ladderback (see the ladderback gallery).

Furthermore, this new chair is built without pegs, except for two which secure the upper back stretcher into the back legs. These stretcher pegs are not a normal feature of Clissett's work – I know of one other chair with these.

I am fairly sure that Sally's chair is a Clissett family piece.

If anyone knows of other unusual Clissett chairs, please do get in touch.

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Museums and collections holding Philip Clissett's chairs

England: London

England: Outside London

Scotland

USA

Another great find - spindleback high chair

Rare Clissett child's high chair

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