From Victorian age with love

Press, 27 September 1982, Page 16

From Victorian age with love

une ot my earnest recollections is of the day I learnt how to sit on a little Victorian chair in my aunt’s sitting room. The size of the chair looked just right for small children, but in my case the habit of tipping off it took a long time to overcome.

When this feat was successfully accomplished, my fond aunt took me on her knee and said, “W’hen you grow up I’ll give you that chair." And she did.

It was more than a gift of a piece of furniture. It was part of herself and my grandparents, and all the colourful aunts and uncles of that time.

By telling the story of how I came to own the chair to my own children, together wi’th other memories of my childhood, the link with the past has given the chair character. It has become a family friend. Its fragile appearance, with cane back and seat, walnut frame, and delicately carved top, is fortunately deceptive. Time and use have proved it structurally sound.

Six small porcelain studs, three on each side of the framework, could be the trademark of the maker, or included purely for decorative purposes.

To find out more about the history of such a chair 1 consulted S. NorthcoteBade’s book, “Colonial Furniture in New Zealand.” A similar chair with a canework and beechwood frame he likens in style to one shown in Fitzgerald’s cabin, on the Charlotte Jane, in 1850.

He also mentions that it is of the type supplied by Rich-

ard Loader, London, and Taylor and Sons, specialists in cabin furniture. So I now know that I can classify my gift as a Victorian deck chair.

To see it in a true setting I have only to take an interested viewer with me into the Canterbury Museum. There, behind a display window showing the interior of J. E. and Fanny Fitzgerald’s cabin on the Charlotte Jane, is indeed a chair, somewhat plainer, but otherwise similar in structure to mine.

The size of the cabin was only 9ft x lift. So, the folding deck chairs, along with a simple wrought-iron wash-

Morag Lawrence recalls her childhood introduction to a treasured piece of furniture, now gracing her Christchurch home.

stand, were usually kept in the beams above the sternlights. In the museum, while gazing into a scene from the past, imagination is given full play.

of that chair whatever the circumstances.

It is pleasant to return home and see the contrast of the chair in a good-sized room, viewed from the comfort of an armchair.

I understand better the great advantage of the chair's light-weight and easily collapsible qualities. I also wonder how some overweight travellers managed to keep their balance on such a dainty framework, in a rough sea and all! But the figure standing nearby in the cabin scene wears a serene expression. She has her embroidery in a suitable framework, and no doubt her Victorian rectitude to match. She would make the best

It has a happy knack of: drawing me over to it. so’ that I in turn, frequently give its walnut framework an afr fectionate polish. Maybe, like Queen Vic-.; toria.T would not be amused " if I knew just how many ' other people had tried to sit ' on my deck chair, tipping off as I did many years ago. but for reasons other than my excuse for being of a verytender age. The chair's expression remains admirably contained," very becoming for its age. ■ >