Forthcoming RFS Events
Regional Furniture Society Spring/Summer 2023 events are now open for booking. Please apply for these events by 1st March, using the booking forms available to print from this site. Numbers for all...
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Chair of the Month for February is a Miniature Joined Rocking Chair
February’s chair of the month is a miniature joined rocking chair with a heart motif in the splat. The chair is about 10cm high (4”) and was made by local chair maker Stuart King. King gave this chair...
View ArticleGillows and Lancaster: new date – Tuesday 25th July 2023
UPDATE 20 February 2023: The Judges’ Lodgings in Lancaster have just announced a special exhibition in the summer. Our visit scheduled for 11th May has now been postponed to Tuesday 25th July, and the...
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Chair of the Month for March is a Cane-seated Fancy Chair from Benjamin North
Chair of the month for March is this cane seated fancy chair from Benjamin North and Sons of West Wycombe, made in about 1857. Most furniture makers were men, so it can be easy to forget that caned...
View ArticleGillows of Lancaster: revised new date – Thursday 3 August 2023
FURTHER UPDATE 14 March 2023: The Judges’ Lodgings in Lancaster have just announced a special exhibition in the summer. Our visit originally scheduled for 11th May, first deferred to Tuesday 25th...
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Chair of the Month for April is the ‘Disraeli Chair’
Chair of the month for April is the ‘Disraeli Chair’ This oversized chair was made by Edwin Skull of High Wycombe in 1876. It was used by prime minister Benjamin Disraeli at the Junior Carlton Club,...
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Chair of the Month for May is this child’s Coronation Chair
Chair of the Month for May is this child’s Coronation Chair Chair of the month for May is this child’s Coronation chair. It was made by George Arthur Lane of High Wycombe in 1953 to mark the...
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Chair of the Month for June is this Rush-seated Chair made for St Paul’s...
Chair of the Month for June is this Rush-seated Chair made for St Paul’s Cathedral, London It was made in High Wycombe, probably at Walter Skull’s factory in the 1870s. The workers who made the rush...
View ArticleRegional Furniture Society – Notice of Annual General Meeting 2023
The Annual General Meeting of the Regional Furniture Society will be held at Bangor University in the Reichel Building on Sunday 9 July at 9:00 a.m. The Agenda, the Minutes of the last AGM and the...
View ArticleBackcountry not Backwards: Working Wood in the Inland American South: Daniel...
Last November Daniel Ackermann very kindly presented his webinar ‘Working wood in the inland American South’. The YouTube version is now available. The index to the talk appears below. There is a...
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Chair of the Month for July is a Chair-caner’s Stool
This low stool was used by several generations of chair seat caners, between about 1870 and 1950. During this time, caning seats was a job mainly done by women. Workers needed a low stool to work...
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Chair of the Month for August is this Upside-down Garden Chair
We hope that August brings us good weather and the free time to take a seat and relax in the open air. However, damp or dirty outdoor seats can be a problem, especially in the UK. This chair was...
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Southern States of America Study Tour, October 2024
As members may be aware, a tour of the Southern States of America is planned for October 2024, studying the regional furniture, houses and social context of early settlers, later migrants, farmers and...
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A private visit to The House of Binns, Linlithgow. National Trust for...
House of The Binns; image: National Trust for Scotland A family home founded by Thomas Dalyell about 1612, an Edinburgh merchant who madehis fortune at the court of King James VI and I in London....
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Chair of the Month for September is this School Desk and Chair
September is back-to-school month! Combined school desk and chair, made in 1909. Unlike most of the artefacts at Wycombe Museum, it wasn’t made locally. It was made by Geo. M. Hammer and Co, of The...
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FREDERICK PARKER CHAIR COLLECTION – ONLINE CATALOGUE
The Furniture Makers’ Company is pleased to announce the launch of a new online catalogue of the Frederick Parker chair collection. This unique collection of 191 British chairs dating from the 1670s...
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Chair of the Month for October is the Wycombe Pitt Chair
Chair of the Month for October is the Wycombe Pitt Chair, a Windsor armchair made by John Pitt in the 1740s. It is made from beech with walnut arm-bow, fruitwood legs and elm seat. The maker of this...
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National Museum of Scotland – The Scottish Interior – 1 December 2023 09:30...
Banqueting Hall at Penkill, Ayrshire, William Bell Scott and Alice Boyd, oil on board, by Arthur Hughes, 1892 On Friday 1 December, the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh is hosting an all-day...
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Designing and Making Furniture: examining the creative process from 1600 to...
L-R: Thomas Chippendale’s drawing of the bed made for the 5th Earl of Dumfries. ©Rogers Fund, 1920, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Detail of a botany diagram to illustrate design lectures by...
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November’s chair of the month is this ‘Q – Stack’ chair
November’s chair of the month is this ‘Q – Stack’ chair, designed by Robin Day of High Wycombe in about 1953 and manufactured by Hille in London. In the 1950s, new ways of constructing chairs were...
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