Waxing Lyrical: David Harvey shines a

Waxing lyrical

David Harvey sheds light on an ingenious Regency period library chair designed to make reading easier

Even as a child, I was fascinated by the ingenuity of our cabinetmakers who produced pieces of metamorphic furniture to solve everyday problems. When I first saw this chair it sparked all sorts of memories of years gone by. I must have handled half a dozen of them over the past 50 years – each being very similar, with differences only in their finish and decoration.

Imagine living in a Regency home with a library where you would read and write for both education and pleasure – all in an age long before electric lighting. In those days you would have been reliant on daylight and candlelight to pursue your pastime. So consider just how annoying it would have been to follow the sun around

Above A library reading chair by Morgan and Sanders

Above right A mention in the prestigious magazine guaranteed popularity among the cognoscenti

Right The chair was deftly articulated to allow the sitter to maximise the light the room to get the best light rather than adjusting one’s chair.

Chairs with book stands were mentioned in Thomas Sheraton’s 1803 Cabinet Dictionary as: “…intended to make the exercise of reading easy and for the convenience of taking down a note or quotation from any subject.”

It is, however, Ackermann’s Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics that tells us who made this chair. The periodical was published monthly from 1809 to 1828 and included hand-coloured plates of interiors, furniture and the decorative arts – a Regency equivalent of today’s World of Interiors magazine. Plate 19, below, published in September 1810, gives the true provenance of our library chair.

Sales pitch

If the journal reader could not understand how it worked, the editorial goes on to describe the functions thus: “Gentlemen either sit across with the face towards the desk, contrived for reading, writing &c. and which, by a rising rack, can be elevated at pleasure; or, when its occupier is tired of the first position, it is with the greatest ease turned round in a brass grove, to either one side or the other; in which case, the gentleman sits sideways. The circling arms in either way form a pleasant easy back, and also in every direction, supports for the arms. As a proof of their real comfort and convenience, they are now in great sale at the warerooms of the inventors, Messrs. Morgan and Sanders, Catherine-street, Strand.”

Shedding light

Not only was the library chair fitted with articulated brass candle holders, to give light on whatever one was reading at night, it also has a pull-out, ink-and-pen drawer on each side of the book stand, under the adjustable book rack, which doubles as a writing surface when horizontal. The arcade to the back splat and the arm supports give it a strong Gothic feel. One could, of course, always use it as a conventional chair – assisted by the fact that the reading flap can be lowered out of sight completely.

Morgan and Sanders

Thanks to Ackermann’s editorial we know that the chair was designed by Morgan and Sanders, and we are fortunate in that a lot is known about this illustrious firm which flourished from 1801 to just 1822.

It was certainly an important company employing more than a hundred staff at its Catherine Street premises in 1809 and 10 times as many in other parts of London. Its speciality was patent and export furniture and it even furnished Nelson’s cabin on HMS Victory before winning a commission to furnish his house at Merton just before he was killed.

To give an idea of the scale of this undertaking, Ackermann published an engraving of one of the many showrooms Morgan and Sanders had in the August 1809 edition. The weighed anchor on the far right of the picture below is no accident, as was the naming of the premises “Trafalgar House” after their deceased patron.

As well as being premier furniture manufacturers, Morgan and Sanders was also able to bring together feats of engineering with upholstery, leather working and even curtain making,

Some 20 years ago a friend and colleague of mine showed this chair at an important New York antiques fair where it caused quite a stir. In this summer of the Platinum Jubilee, isn’t it nice to have this piece of very special history safely back in Great Britain?

David Harvey is the owner of Witney-based W R Harvey & Co. (Antiques) Ltd. For more details go to the website www.wrharvey.com

Left The stand could be tucked neatly away when not in use

Right Morgan and Sanders’s advertisement showcases the breadth of its designs

Below right As attractive when viewed from the back, the chair was the ultimate piece of portable furniture

Below left The 1809 edition of Ackermann’s Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics shows a room in Morgan and Sanders’s showrooms

Fuelling the Industrial Revolution

While Morgan and Sanders’s skills are more than apparent in this outstanding chair, the firm would also have come up with a number of other designs for more commerical or middle-of-the-road clients. There are a number of “patent” extending dining tables in existence which were known to have been made by Morgan and Sanders, many of which are evident from this broadsheet advertisement dating from 1810. It clearly shows many of the ingenious traits which were to fuel the upcoming Industrial Revolution during which people of different skills came together to design and build the products which filled the great exhibitions of the day, and went on to fund some of our most important museums and collections.

‘Morgan and Sanders was a premier furniture manufacturer able to bring together the talents of cabinetmaking with that of engineering, upholstery, leather working and even curtain making’