Windsors at West Wycombe:
A Definitive Exhibition of 18th Century English Windsor Chairs

The most important collection of earliest-known Windsor chairs ever publicly displayed, comprising some 35 of the finest 18th century examples, will be shown from 6-31 May 2012 at West Wycombe Park (National Trust). The area around the nearby town of High Wycombe has been synonymous with the manufacture of Windsor chairs from the late 18th to the mid-20th century. The chairs are on loan from public and private collections.

Among exhibits will be:

Captain Cook's comb-back Forest chair. It travelled with Cook on his last voyage, dating the chair to c1776. (Trinity House Collection)
A painted 'Pitt-type' comb-back (see fig. right), mid-C18th, one of five or six identified as by John Pitt (1714-1759), the earliest-known Windsor chair maker who worked in Upton-cum-Chalvey, now part of Slough. (Wycombe Museum)
An unusual bow-back chair (see fig. left) with ribbon slats, c1770s (Private Collection)