In previous posts, and in the chapter on Clissett and the Arts and Crafts Movement, I’ve identified several paintings that include Clissett ladderback chairs as an important part of the composition. Here we have another, this time by William Ratcliffe (1870-1955). It’s up for auction next month (October 2020) at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh, and much of what follows comes from their description of the painting.

Ratcliffe studied wallpaper design in Manchester under Walter Crane. The family moved house, in 1906, from Manchester to Letchworth, the new Garden City with many Arts & Crafts influences, and where we know that many houses were furnished with Clissett’s chairs. A couple of years later, the artist Harold Gilman also moved to Letchworth and became a neighbour of the Ratcliffe family. Under Gilman’s influence, Ratcliffe gave up wallpaper design and took up painting. He was introduced to the Campden Town Group by Gilman, and showed paintings in all three of the group’s exhibitions.

This particular painting is thought to depict the home of Stanley and Signe Parker at 102 Wilbury Road, Letchworth. Several photographs of the interior of this house exist, and they show several Clissett ladderbacks. It certainly seems likely that this is the suggested location, especially as Ratcliffe knew the Parkers, and is known to have visited them.

It’s worth noting that Gilman also painted a room containing a Clissett ladderback. In that instance, the chair almost certainly belonged to Gilman himself.

Recently, I have been following up on the notion, based on the publication in 1903 by D.S. MacColl, that Clissett's ladderback chairs became very popular amongst those that saw them at the Art Workers Guild. There might, I hoped, be photographs of original Arts & Crafts interiors that featured these chairs.

As part of this line of enquiry, I pulled from the files a photocopy I was given some time ago. This showed the living room of Raymond Unwin who, with Barry Parker, was architect and planner at Letchworth Garden City. He occupied this house (“Laneside” at Letchworth) between 1904 and 1906. The photograph came from the book Raymond Unwin: garden cities & town planning by Mervyn Miller (published 1992); Miller refers to the chairs as “Clissett”. When Unwin moved to Hampstead in 1906, to the house he was to occupy for the rest of his life, it seems that the chairs went with him. (The copy of the photograph shown here comes from a copy of The Craftsman published in 1911)

Following this line of enquiry held some surprises. The National Portrait Gallery holds some photographic portraits of Unwin. In one of these, taken in the 1930s by the Bassano studio, Unwin appears to be sitting in one of the chairs seen in the much earlier photograph. The visible parts of this chair make it clear that it is Clissett's. Time to look a little further...

Unwin's partner, Barry Parker, published a long series of articles around 1910 in the American magazine The Craftsman. Each of these is illustrated by photographs of houses and interiors by Parker & Unwin, including the first photograph referred to above. Several others of the illustrated interiors feature these same ladderback chairs, showing Clissett's chairs in Arts & Crafts interiors dating from 1899 in England, Scotland and Ireland.

A final piece of circumstantial evidence. One of only two surviving bills of sale from the Clissett workshop dates from 1906, and is made out to Mr Wilson Bidwell. Richard Wilson Bidwell (1877-1944) worked with Parker & Unwin in Bakewell, and went with them to Letchworth.

And one final surprise. In several of his articles, Barry Parker claimed (personally, or with his partner) to have designed all the furniture in the interiors shown. The total number of possible designers of the “Clissett” ladderback is now four; James MacLaren (the front runner), Ernest Gimson (according to many dealers and some museums – no evidence for this), the architectural team of Arnold Dunbar Smith and Cecil Brewer (according to the V&A – but again no evidence) and, now, Parker & Unwin!

Here is another of the photographs of Clissett ladderbacks in a Parker & Unwin house. This time, it's a house in Belfast and the photos come from another copy of The Craftsman published in 1911.