CHAIRS WITH HISTORIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19496, 27 November 1926, Page 5 (Supplement)

CHAIRS WITH HISTORIES.

" THE STONE OF DESTINY." THE SEAT OF KING CHARLES. The most famous chair in the world in undoubtedly the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey, which contains the Stone of Destiny, but there are many other chairs well worth recording. ,For instance, the chair in which the hapless Charles I. sat during his trial, in Westminster Hall is kept in a glass case in the Board Room of the Cottage Hospital, Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Gloucestershire. " Cromwell's Chair," used to be at Chequers. Sir Joshua Reynolds' " Sitters' Chair " is in the Diploma Gallery at Burlington House, in Piccadilly. At Longford Castle. Wiltshire, is an armchair of solid steel, presented to the Emperor Rudolph 11. by the people of Augsburg in 1577. It is said to have taken thirty years to make, and to be valued at £40,000 It is covered with historical end symbolical scenes, each said to be the work of a great master One of the most beautiful chain n the world is the Chair of.Dagobert, King of the Franks, who died in the year 638. It is made of cast and chiselled bronze of very fine workmanship. But although the British Coronation Chair stands first with Britons, St Peters Chair at. Rom is said to be the most ancient and ; interesting piece of furniture in existence Londoners are familiar with the Bishop s Throne in St. Paul's, with its magnificent canopy carved by Gnnl.cg Gibbons. Exeter Cathedral lias also ft very fine : bishop's throne. 1