Earliest photograph of Philip Clissett's chairs

These photographs (below), of Barnard's Inn Hall in London, were taken on 12 November 1892, and are the earliest known photograph of Philip Clissett's chairs.  I wrote about this image (and a second one that shows the same chairs plus a high back armchair) in a previous post. At that time, I couldn't show the photographs because of a copyright issue. Now, Historic England has allowed me to display them, for which I am very grateful.

These chairs are undoubtedly some of those that were bought from Clissett by the Art Workers Guild, and organisation that used the Hall for it's meetings. They bought many more chairs over the next twenty years or so, and they are still in regular use in the Guild's current meeting room.

It's interesting that two of the chairs are unusual in having bulbous underarm turnings, rather than the usual tapered design. The Guild has quite a few chairs in this unusual design, but they are rarely seen elsewhere. That they are amongst the Guild's earliest purchases (they started buying them in 1888) suggests that they may have been part of James MacLaren's original design.

Barnards Inn Hall, London, 1892, showing Philip Clissett chairs presumably belonging to the Art Workers Guild who held their meetings there. (Courtesy of Historic England).

A second image of Barnards Inn Hall, London, 1892, showing Philip Clissett chairs presumably belonging to the Art Workers Guild who held their meetings there. (Courtesy of Historic England).