16th -17th century 3 legged captains armchair

And colonial?

 

Don't do that PLEASE! It's a scam site designed to get your CC number!

 

MYTH I SAY! i deal with them all the time!
First off, sailing on the high seas was very serious business in the 17th century, hells bells, it's serious business today. One little slip and that's THAT! never heard from again.
Function RULES in that situation, trust me. 3 leg carved chairs simply don't fit in, especially ones that need to be "pegged or roped during rough weather".
No qualified people have examined this object, we don't even know the wood species.
There are no period images of this form extant and, THERE SHOULD BE
Add all this up, TOTAL MYTH!

 

It seems like it would be pretty easy, albeit expensive to scientifically analyze this and at least determine the age of the timber. Getting 350 year old seaman DNA(see what I did there?) is probably another story....and the fact that no one seems to actually ‘have’ the chair, the best I can determine is also a problem.

 

As Michael pointed out, van Isacker is sitting in it in a picture on his homepage. Whether it is his, seems to be a mystery.



It says on his website that his research is currently focused on the chair. What that entails? If he will have it tested, has already had it tested, has published tests, also seem to be a mystery.

Maybe he even has a 350 year old seaman taking a nap in an upstairs bedroom, you never know. But I'd rather have the chair tested than a 350 year old seaman.

 

Thing is, testing won't reveal age of chair, just the wood species.

 

And they could have used wood given to them by the napping 350 year old seaman.

 

LOL,oh Lord! That 350 year old wood was STOLEN! from that seaman! while he was napping!
Tell you what the form looks like, windsor chair style called a captains or fireman chair here & bow back or smoker chair in england. A low back windsor, naturally they have 4 legs, popular in the victorian age.
English victorian Bow back

 

Good point! If i had to guess, I'd say someone bought a "bargain" in 2004 and is trying to turn it into something it clearly is not.

 

I'm not much of a detective, but I'm trying to think out of the box. As shared in an earlier post, Churchill's chair "was a gift from General Sir Ian Hamilton". I'm checking to see what Hamilton and Churchills connection was. From what I have read so far it looks like lengthy story. I will hopefully will return with a condensed version and some further clues.

 

Has been watching "War & Plunder" battles that shaped the world, a 2018 6 part documentary that tells the story about england & the netherlands all during the 17th century with massive sailing ship battles. 100 sailing ships per side in many battles battering away at each other with cannon broadsides for days at a time, the biggest sailing ship battles in history. Pretty gruesome stuff, from africa to asia and north america these two countries fought for supremacy in trade routes, a very big deal at the time.

 

This is a very condense version of a very complex story, so history experts please forgive me.

Churchill - Hamilton connection WW1

Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty from 1911-1915.

Hamilton commanded the Allied Mediterranean Expeditionary Force which was to gain control of the Dardanelles straits.

Gallipoli Campaign / Dardanelles Campaign and others

Churchill, proposed a naval attack on the Dardanelles, based in part on erroneous reports of Ottoman troop strength. At the time many MPs, particularly Conservatives, blamed Churchill for the failure of these campaigns. Amid growing Conservative pressure, Prime Minister Asquith agreed to form an all-party coalition government; the Conservatives' one condition of entry was that Churchill be demoted from his position at the Admiralty. Churchill was fired!

Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty 1939 -1940

On 3 September 1939, the day Britain declared war on Germany following the outbreak of the Second World War, Churchill again was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty.

This is speculation on my part, I believe it quite possible that Hamilton gave the captain’s chair as a gift to Churchill, symbolic of his return to Frist Lord of the Admiralty.

So Where did Hamilton get the chair….?

In 1940, George VI asked Churchill to be prime minister. No one else wanted the job.

 

Hello All, I'm still at it looking for any information on the chairs in OP and or Churchill's chair. I've spent many hours surfing the web. I know someone out there must know something. I have found some similar, chairs but no cigar. Two similar chairs in this post but much more crude workmen ship. I found them at the Met web site.

 

What were they described as? Do you have links?

 

I looked yesterday on Met site, they are described as Italian, 14th-15th century.
Thing is, to my knowledge, no one that is qualified has actually looked into these chairs, they were gifts and simply repeating what the gift giver was told doesn't make it so.
The bottom line in all this is, are there period images in Italian, Spanish, Netherlands fine art or any other european country? If there is then it's possible they are period chairs, if no period images exist then this is a problem that can't be explained away with "folklore".

 

Here are links, I forgot!
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/colle...urniture&ft=chairs&offset=0&rpp=80&pos=80

Here is a link to all the chairs at the MET
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/colle...ortBy=Relevance&sortOrder=asc&searchField=All

 

I did spent several hours looking through 100s of period paintings and did not fine a single piece of art with any chairs like these. I'm inclined to agree with James earlier post;

"MYTH I SAY! I deal with them all the time!
First off, sailing on the high seas was very serious business in the 17th century, hells bells, it's serious business today. One little slip and that's THAT! never heard from again.
Function RULES in that situation, trust me. 3 leg carved chairs simply don't fit in, especially ones that need to be "pegged or roped during rough weather".
No qualified people have examined this object, we don't even know the wood species.
There are no period images of this form extant and, THERE SHOULD BE
Add all this up, TOTAL MYTH!"

Almost inclined, but not 100% yet. I guess one is attracted to the shape and form or not. There just seems to be something appealing about it to me. I was hoping someone from Europe was going to comment. I will continue my search. Thanks to those who have explored this with me!

 

I found another example of a 3 leg captains tub armchair at National Trust site. This with more ornate craftsmen ship. The chair is on display at Chirk Castle, Wrexham, Dated 1800-1900. No additional information was available. Just thought it interesting.

 

Yep, thar she blowssssssssssssssssssssssssss!
I would say ALL the 3 leg "captain chairs" so far in this thread are in that date range