Beech ‘Sussex’ armchair with rush seat made by Morris & Co.
Identifier
FPF498
Title
Beech ‘Sussex’ armchair with rush seat made by Morris & Co.
Date
Designed 1860, made 1864-1940
Description
Beech ‘Sussex’ armchair with rush seat, possibly designed by Philip Webb and made by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Full Description
This turned beech chair with a rush seat has four concave rails in the back, the top pair spaced apart and joined with four decoratively turned spindles, the lower pair set close together. The raked back posts have flat finials on the tops and are continuous with the back legs. The arms are curved and terminate with button finials; they are supported on splayed posts which rise through the seat rails from a cross stretcher under the seat. The seat frame is tapered and rushed, with squared blocks at the corners above the front legs. The edges of the rush seat are protected by wooden slips, now all missing apart from a short piece on the front edge. There are double stretchers at the front, back and sides and a single cross stretcher under the seat. All the wooden parts are beech and are ebonised, i.e. stained dark brown.
This chair is thought to have been designed by Philip Webb in around 1860, and was made from 1864 by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Sons, the firm established by William Morris (Gere and Whiteway, 1993). It is one of a range of designs made by the firm and retailed as Sussex chairs, based on vernacular chairs made in East Hoathly, Sussex by Henry or Harry Rich (1786-1867) (Pennington, 1995).
The Sussex chair was one of the most popular pieces of furniture made by Morris & Co., being one of the staple products up to the firm’s eventual closure in the 1940s. William Morris and his wife, Jane, had Sussex chairs at their home, Red House, Bexleyheath, as did Edward Burne-Jones and Albert Gilbert. In the influential Decoration and Furnishing of Town Houses (1881), the author, Robert Edis, recommended this chair as 'excellent, comfortable and artistic'. Other firms like Liberty & Co., and Heals, produced their own versions of this fashionable design (Parry, 1996).
There is another example in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (CIRC.288-1960).
This chair is thought to have been designed by Philip Webb in around 1860, and was made from 1864 by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Sons, the firm established by William Morris (Gere and Whiteway, 1993). It is one of a range of designs made by the firm and retailed as Sussex chairs, based on vernacular chairs made in East Hoathly, Sussex by Henry or Harry Rich (1786-1867) (Pennington, 1995).
The Sussex chair was one of the most popular pieces of furniture made by Morris & Co., being one of the staple products up to the firm’s eventual closure in the 1940s. William Morris and his wife, Jane, had Sussex chairs at their home, Red House, Bexleyheath, as did Edward Burne-Jones and Albert Gilbert. In the influential Decoration and Furnishing of Town Houses (1881), the author, Robert Edis, recommended this chair as 'excellent, comfortable and artistic'. Other firms like Liberty & Co., and Heals, produced their own versions of this fashionable design (Parry, 1996).
There is another example in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (CIRC.288-1960).
Condition
Beech slips missing from the seat.
Rush is damaged in places, but probably original to the chair.
Rush is damaged in places, but probably original to the chair.
Materials
Beech.
Rush.
Rush.
Physical Dimensions
H. 83
W. 52
D. 39
W. 52
D. 39
Provenance
Acquired by the Frederick Parker Collection in 2016.
Notes
Sussex chair | Webb, Philip (Speakman) | V&A Explore The Collections
Charlotte Gere and Michael Whiteway, Nineteenth Century Design, from Pugin to Mackintosh, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1993, p. 97-8 and PL.111.Janet Pennington, ‘Sussex Chairs’, Regional Furniture Vol IX, 1995, pp. 81-87.
Linda Parry, William Morris, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996, p.168-9, Plate J.11.
See also: Simon Jervis, ‘ “Sussex” Chairs in 1820’, Furniture History, Vol X, 1974, p.99.
