SLIGO
The following series of chairs is derived from the Sligo chair - a vernacular Irish chair type.
Further details after the images...
Sligo1 Irish oak, wax finish. 2009.
Sligo2 'The Twins' Irish walnut, oil finish, 2009.
Sligo 3 Irish cherry, shellac finish. 2009.
Sligo 4 Laminated ash. 2010.
Sligo 4a Laminated birch plywood, painted. 2010.
Some information about he 'original', nineteenth century Sligo chair
A Sligo or Tuam chair is an old Irish form of three-legged chair. The drawing on the left (above) is of a chair in the collection of the National Museum of Country Life at Turlough Park, the one on the right taken from an illustration in Irish Country Furniture 1700-1950 (Kinmonth, 1993), which is in turn taken from a book of 1841.
A Sligo chair can be described as a plank or board chair, in that most of the elements are considerably wider than they are thick: the proportions of the members are those of a plank – wide and relatively thin - in contrast to a ‘stick’ whose cross-section is approximately square (or round). It has a distinctive triangular seat, consisting of a side-to-side front element (A in diagram above), a front-to-back central element (B) and two side elements (C), forming a triangle. The single back leg (D) continues up past seat height to form the backrest. The front legs (E) are ‘sticks’ that attach to the front element.
From that basic pattern there are derivations or modifications (as above). There can be rails at the lower level, one transverse connecting the front legs, another running front-to-back, connecting the front leg assembly with the rear leg (A). There can be arms, as in the National Museum example (B). In that case the front legs run up past the plank to join the underside of the arms. The back leg can be shaped to assist comfort and stability (C). If the modifications are combined a chair as in the diagram below results.
Three-legged and/or plank chairs are a form not unknown in other European countries (see below). The seat elements and their configuration however appears to be unique to the Sligo chair. The Sligo chair has a somewhat iconic role in Irish design history, for example, Yeats had some Sligo chairs made for his house at Thor Ballylee during the Celtic Revival in the early 1900s, at a time when European countries, particularly the Nordic countries, were reviving national patterns of furniture. He wrote in letter to Maud Gonne in 1918 that he dreamt:
of making a house that may encourage people to avoid ugly manufactured things - an ideal poor man’s house. Except a very few things imported as models we should get all made in Galway or Limerick. I am told that our neighbours are pleased that we are not getting ‘grand things but old Irish furniture.
Further details after the images...
Sligo1 Irish oak, wax finish. 2009.
Sligo2 'The Twins' Irish walnut, oil finish, 2009.
Sligo 3 Irish cherry, shellac finish. 2009.
Sligo 4 Laminated ash. 2010.
Sligo 4a Laminated birch plywood, painted. 2010.
Some information about he 'original', nineteenth century Sligo chair
A Sligo or Tuam chair is an old Irish form of three-legged chair. The drawing on the left (above) is of a chair in the collection of the National Museum of Country Life at Turlough Park, the one on the right taken from an illustration in Irish Country Furniture 1700-1950 (Kinmonth, 1993), which is in turn taken from a book of 1841.
A Sligo chair can be described as a plank or board chair, in that most of the elements are considerably wider than they are thick: the proportions of the members are those of a plank – wide and relatively thin - in contrast to a ‘stick’ whose cross-section is approximately square (or round). It has a distinctive triangular seat, consisting of a side-to-side front element (A in diagram above), a front-to-back central element (B) and two side elements (C), forming a triangle. The single back leg (D) continues up past seat height to form the backrest. The front legs (E) are ‘sticks’ that attach to the front element.
From that basic pattern there are derivations or modifications (as above). There can be rails at the lower level, one transverse connecting the front legs, another running front-to-back, connecting the front leg assembly with the rear leg (A). There can be arms, as in the National Museum example (B). In that case the front legs run up past the plank to join the underside of the arms. The back leg can be shaped to assist comfort and stability (C). If the modifications are combined a chair as in the diagram below results.
Three-legged and/or plank chairs are a form not unknown in other European countries (see below). The seat elements and their configuration however appears to be unique to the Sligo chair. The Sligo chair has a somewhat iconic role in Irish design history, for example, Yeats had some Sligo chairs made for his house at Thor Ballylee during the Celtic Revival in the early 1900s, at a time when European countries, particularly the Nordic countries, were reviving national patterns of furniture. He wrote in letter to Maud Gonne in 1918 that he dreamt:
of making a house that may encourage people to avoid ugly manufactured things - an ideal poor man’s house. Except a very few things imported as models we should get all made in Galway or Limerick. I am told that our neighbours are pleased that we are not getting ‘grand things but old Irish furniture.