Very Old Chair Design

btracey1

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Joined
Oct 11, 2009
Messages
109
This is what's called a Glastonbury Chair and it's origins go back to England in the 1500's.
My son asked if I could make him, one and it looked easy enough, so I decided to give it a try.
It's all White Oak and I figure two people should be able to lift it. Luckily it breaks down into the pile of parts shown in the pictures.
What holds it together are 8 wedges and gravity. It's a bit of a puzzle to put together, and was even more of a puzzle to figure out how to cut the not so obvious angles involved in its construction.
It's definitely not fine furniture, but it was fun to build, none the less.
 
Great work. Would have been nice to see some routing/carving on it as the originals were embellished. Why did your son want one made?
 
Wooden Lungs,
My son is a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, which is an international living history group with the aim of studying and recreating mainly Medieval European cultures.
They have gatherings and dress up as knights with armor and sword fights etc. He saw some examples of the Glastonbury type chairs at one of those gatherings. This chair will be used a couple of times a year, maybe.
If it were intended to be placed in someones living room, I would have taken the time for the embellishments. This is essentially, a camp chair. I think of it as a very early period folding chair, that doesn't fold....it just comes apart.
 
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