A pair of 19th century spindle back side chairs attributed to the Owen family of chair makers of Clun village in Shropshire. The chairs are turned from ash with tenoned elm seats and both chairs have wonderful wear, surface and colour. The chairs are in very good condition with just an old repair to the underside of one chair seat.

18” wide x 14” deep x 35½” high (seat height 16”)

45.7cm wide x 35.5cm deep x 90cm high (seat height 40.6cm)

£785.00

A very similar chair is illustrated in The English Regional Chair by Bernard D. Cotton and published by the Antique Collectors Club, 1st published in 1997.

The following extract is taken from the West Midland, Shropshire & Staffordshire section.

”If the Northern Shropshire/Staffordshire towns may be thought to represent relatively sophisticated communities, other parts of Shropshire underwent relatively little social development between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In consequence, the poorer and more isolated communities retained their traditional crafts and way of life well into this century. The village of Clun represents such a community, and here lived what was probably the longest continuing family of truly vernacular chair makers in the country, the Owen’s, who pursued their craft over several generations, from at least the early nineteenth century and probably much before this, until about 1910. Elderly villagers recall that the last Owen worked in a small workshop at Church Bank, Clun, and made simple wooden seated spindle back chairs of the type shown in Figure WM52 using wood from nearby Clinton Coppice. The chairs that Owen made were typically loaded onto a handcart which he pushed, early on Saturday mornings, to the market of the Welsh border town of Newtown, some twelve miles away. It is believed by the residents of Clun that this was his main trade outlet, and that his wife’s family was able to offer him accommodation overnight. 

J.Owen proved to be the last of the Clun line of chair makers, however, since Clinton Coppice was sold in 1898 by the Clun Burgesses, depriving Owen of his source of wood. Local rememberance of Owen chairs indicates that his designs were confined to variations of spindle back chairs”