A style of wooden chair with a shaped seat, splayed legs and backs made of fine spindles that fit into a shaped top rail of varying design and height.
Whilst it has a definite overall style, the Windsor chair comes in various sizes and variations: from full rocking carver to child’s seat, from fan back to comb back, hoop back, low back and rod back to continuous arms. Its many versatile designs make this chair suited to dining areas, bedrooms, halls, kitchens and as useful side-chairs.]
The original Windsor chair makers were ‘bodgers’–independent green woodsmen, who lived, worked and traded in and around the Windsor area and to the north, Hemel Hempstead, which became and still is an important furniture making centre.
Windsor chairs gained in popularity in 18h C England and in the United States, and have never really gone out of fashion. Old Windsor chairs have a lovely colour and patina that is only born of time and from the–often mixed–indigenous woods used.
In the mid 20thC, Ercol developed the concept into stylish sofas and armchairs.
Windsor chairs are ergonomically successful, always comfortable, and can still be bought today from green woodsmen working the woodlands, as they once used to.