Childhood Memories
There is something uniquely personal about primitive stick chairs. They have an individuality and character about them, that more sophisticated furniture often doesn't share.
Maybe it’s their elemental quality, the unpretentious “form and function” aesthetic, along with interesting surface textures and patination, that bear witness to their working lives and individual histories.
Fashioned from indigenous timbers and made by vernacular craftsmen, they were built for regular use, so they were solid, reliable, and functional. These features, along with their bold simplicity and appealing economic lines, are the qualities we continue to celebrate.
Examples of children’s primitive stick-back chairs are unusual and the memorable ones tend to echo the form and character of contemporary full-grown “adult” chairs, as in this case.
The present example is a rare survivor. A miniature version of a classic full-sized West-Country model, with a plain crest rail and the shaped flat section arms, through which the outside spindles are socketed on both sides. Originally made with four legs, at some time in its early life it was converted to a three-legged model, so it could stand safely on uneven surfaces.
Gloriously timeworn after nearly 250 years, its whimsical wonky character lives on, ready to inspire joyful memories for yet another family.
Maybe it’s their elemental quality, the unpretentious “form and function” aesthetic, along with interesting surface textures and patination, that bear witness to their working lives and individual histories.
Fashioned from indigenous timbers and made by vernacular craftsmen, they were built for regular use, so they were solid, reliable, and functional. These features, along with their bold simplicity and appealing economic lines, are the qualities we continue to celebrate.
Examples of children’s primitive stick-back chairs are unusual and the memorable ones tend to echo the form and character of contemporary full-grown “adult” chairs, as in this case.
The present example is a rare survivor. A miniature version of a classic full-sized West-Country model, with a plain crest rail and the shaped flat section arms, through which the outside spindles are socketed on both sides. Originally made with four legs, at some time in its early life it was converted to a three-legged model, so it could stand safely on uneven surfaces.
Gloriously timeworn after nearly 250 years, its whimsical wonky character lives on, ready to inspire joyful memories for yet another family.
Also in Journal
“ART POPULAIRE” LOVE TOKEN
A very rare example of French “Art Populaire” pottery from Provence, decorated with stylised “Cigales” or Cicadas. These insects are the traditional symbolic motif of the Provence region in the South of France and are considered good luck charms.
"Beyond The Mainland" | Recent Works by Tom Hickman
Tom Hickman lives and works alone in a croft on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. He has no mobile phone, television, tablet or wifi.
"at home"
For our 2021 Bada Week Exhibition we thought it would be interesting to loosely draw on this resource and explore a few various different naive and primitive house-form motifs, architectural models, depictions of buildings and homes that we have discovered in multiple media and some of the ways that they have been incorporated into the narrative of British and European Folk Art.
