It has been some years since the Master Joiner and Ceiler inspected our most valuable treasure in the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Master's Chair, which was put into the care of the V&A as long ago as 1903.
Accompanied by Past Master John Snelling, the Master met Ms Kate Hay, Assistant Curator, Department of Furniture, Textiles and Fashion at the V&A, and went to view the chair in the Restoration Department. The Chair had been moved there because, after many years
in storage, the V&A are planning to open a Furniture Gallery in 2012 and the Master Joiner and Ceiler’s Chair is to be one of the main exhibits. This is welcome news and the Master promised that
the Joiners Company would make a visit to see the exhibition when it had opened.
At the Restoration Department, the Master met both Lucy Wood, curator of the proposed Furniture Gallery, and Nigel Bamforth, Head of the Furniture Conservation Section, who is in charge of
restoring the Chair. Lucy explained that the Chair would be exhibited in the Carving section of the new Gallery and was most excited to learn that 'Ceiler' means a carver. Nigel explained that
he would be recommending to the Company what restoration work was needed and the Master reassured him that the Company would be only too happy to back his judgement.
The Master’s Chair was made by Past Master Edward Newman in 1754. Mr Newman was Master in 1749 having joined the Livery in 1720 and the Court of Assistants in 1730. He was clearly the foremost Joiner and Ceiler of his day as he had been commissioned by the Company during the 1740s to make a new set of chairs and tables for the Court room and a new Master’s Desk. This desk is long gone but the Master is still presented with keys to a desk on his installation as Master and I think it is probable that this tradition goes back to the days when the Master had this fine desk to use. Mr Newman was paid £27 6 0 (£27.30 in today’s money) to make the Chair, which was a substantial sum in those days. Today the Chair has been valued at £175,000
The Chair is made in mahogany with a leather seat. The back has Gothic columns, ogees (double curve with the shape of an elongated S), rosaille work, acanthus (thorny) supporting a top rail on which
two amorini (cupids) hold the Company’s crest. The arms are composed of "S" curves, rocaille work (shell like) and end in lions heads supported by similarly decorated uprights. The seat rail is straight
and carved with Gothic fret work (interlaced decorative design), straight square legs and four stretchers similarly decorated with the back legs splayed. The picture gives you a better idea!
So as to protect the Chair, the Master perched rather carefully on the front so as not to damage the seat. As a matter of course the V&A staff never sit in the chairs that they have to exhibit so as to
protect them from any possibility of damage. This enabled the Master to be photographed in the Chair, probably the first Master to have sat on the Chair for many years.
The Master and Past Master Snelling felt honoured to have touched a piece of Joiners and Ceilers history. This was after all the chair that the Company’s most famous Master, John Wilkes, would have sat in when he was Master in 1770!