RESEARCH LOG

A nineteenth-century metal rocking chair

Part 1: A Winfield with original upholstery or not?

by Ingeborg de Roode and Stedelijk conservators

September 27, 2023

Editorial Note

Since 1985, a rocking chair made of strip iron has been part of the Stedelijk Museum collection. In the catalogue of the Stedelijk’s furniture collection (fig. 1), which was published in 2004, both the design and production were attributed to R.W. Winfield & Co., located in Birmingham, United Kingdom. The date given was “ca. 1860.” During the preparations for the exhibition MODERN – Van Gogh, Rietveld, Léger and Others, the design and origin of this piece of furniture was subjected to further examination and attention. In this research log, industrial design curator of the Stedelijk, Ingeborg de Roode, reports on the findings of the ongoing research.

In the context of uncovering the early nineteenth-century roots of modernism, metal furniture in particular caught my attention, because already in the middle of that century furniture appeared to be made almost entirely of tubular metal. Wasn’t that precisely the “revolutionary” material of many modernist creations from 1925 onwards—almost a century later? Designer Charlotte Perriand was referring in 1929 to tubular steel when she wrote in the magazine The Studio: “METAL (…) IT IS A REVOLUTION.”^[1]

The most famous nineteenth-century design which was made entirely of tubular metal, except for a few crossbars, is a rocking chair. Unfortunately, it is not clear who designed it, but metal manufacturer R.W. Winfield presented a version with brass tubes at the first world’s fair at the Crystal Palace in 1851. In the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum there is a—probably slightly later—variant with iron tubes (fig. 2). Eleven years later, at the next world’s fair in London, the company showed the same model, but made of strip metal. And that brings us to the variant in the Stedelijk.

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Fig.1 Designer unknown, rocking chair, design 1839 or earlier, strip metal, Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

Fig. 2 Gallery overview in the exhibition MODERN with the tubular iron rocking chair from the Victoria & Albert on top. Designer unknown (design 1839 or earlier), prod attributed to R.W. Winfield, Birmingham.

Fig. 3 Detail of the Stedelijk rocking chair with the ‘crin vegetal’ as filling.

Fig. 4 Stedelijk rocking chair with the part where a horizontal band was attached to the two metal strips to the left and right of the back.

Fig. 5. The seat of the Stedelijk rocking chair seen from below.

Fig. 6 . Details of the back of the Stedelijk rocking chair where now unused stitching holes can be seen.

Fig.1 Designer unknown, rocking chair, design 1839 or earlier, strip metal, Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

Fig. 2 Gallery overview in the exhibition MODERN with the tubular iron rocking chair from the Victoria & Albert on top. Designer unknown (design 1839 or earlier), prod attributed to R.W. Winfield, Birmingham.

Fig. 3 Detail of the Stedelijk rocking chair with the ‘crin vegetal’ as filling.

Fig. 4 Stedelijk rocking chair with the part where a horizontal band was attached to the two metal strips to the left and right of the back.

Fig. 5. The seat of the Stedelijk rocking chair seen from below.

Fig. 6 . Details of the back of the Stedelijk rocking chair where now unused stitching holes can be seen.

Our research into the history of metal furniture showed that both the tubular metal and the strip metal versions were marketed by various European and North American companies.^[2] Unfortunately, in most cases it is not clear how versions can be differentiated between manufacturers. More examples of strip metal have been preserved than of tubular metal. Many more strip metal pieces were probably made, because until the German Mannesmann brothers developed a way to draw seamless tubes in 1885, making metal tubes was a quite complex and labor-intensive process.^[3]

Of course we would like to know whether our piece was produced by the well-known manufacturer R.W. Winfield and whether the finish and upholstery are original. The rocking chair was therefore subjected to a physical examination by furniture conservator Miko Vasques Dias, textile conservator Lorena Dekkers, and coordinating conservator Netta Krumperman. However, it could not yet be proven if we are dealing with a Winfield original or a copy. To gain a better grip on the attribution of various pieces, further research is required into all known copies and information on the manufacturing companies.

Another question we had was whether the upholstery could be original. Many rocking chairs that we encounter in collections or in the art trade have a padded upholstery (i.e., where buttons at regular intervals connect a fabric to a surface, creating a kind of cushion effect). This also applied to the copy that Winfield presented at the world’s fair in 1851. Since the upholstery on our example is quite thick, we thought there might be another layer of upholstery underneath. We often see that, after a fabric has worn out, the upholstery is not replaced but simply covered with a new one. The physical examination showed that this is not the case. The thick layer is the result of being filled with a type of grass (fig. 3). Such a vegetable fiber-based filling material was known in the Netherlands in the nineteenth century as ‘crin vegetal‘ (vegetable horsehair). It was cheaper than horsehair and has the advantage that it is not susceptible to damage by moths.

As far as the filling is concerned, production in the nineteenth century is therefore possible. Also regarding the upholstery, for that matter. The moquette, a cotton ground fabric with a soft mohair pile, on the top and front of the freely hanging seat/backrest and the oilcloth on the bottom and back, could also both be from the nineteenth century. The oilcloth, a cotton or linen fabric made waterproof with oil, was perhaps used here as a cheap substitute for leather.

On the rear side of the backrest, at the height of the shoulder blades of someone who would be sitting in the chair, a horizontal section that is different in color can be seen (fig. 4). The rest of the oilcloth has been painted over in gray. It is suspected there was a band at that location during the repainting, which attached to the two iron strips on the left and right. It may have been a leather strap to provide counter pressure against the weight of a person sitting in the chair. We have not seen such a band on other copies so far. It is clear that the two iron bars to which the upholstery is attached (at the front of the chair and at the top) are subject to significantly more force, due to the weight of someone sitting in the chair. The attachment of the textile to those metal bars also must endure a lot, similar to the loose-hanging fabric of a deckchair, which serves as both seat and backrest. The only support for the rocking chair’s upholstery is the semicircular construction of four horizontal metal bars (fig. 5).

Another thing to notice is that other, currently unused, holes can be seen at the edges of the oilcloth where it is sewn to the rest of the upholstery (fig. 6). Either the oilcloth has been reused (but the previous application was almost the same size as here), or it has been removed and resewn.

There are still many questions, but the preliminary results of the research into our copy of the rocking chair show that it cannot yet be ruled out that it is a Winfield version and that it may possibly have an original upholstery. The research by our team of conservators will continue after the MODERN exhibition.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to furniture conservator Miko Vasques Dias, textile conservator Lorena Dekkers, and coordinating conservator Netta Krumperman for their valuable contributions to this research log.

About the Author

Ingeborg de Roode is industrial design curator at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam since 2001. She has organized various exhibitions including Designing for children: Aldo van Eyck’s playgrounds (2002), Marcel Wanders. Pinned Up (2014), Touch and Tweet: interactive installations (2015), Living in the Amsterdam School (2016), Solution or Utopia? Designing for refugees (2017) and, in collaboration with Pao Lien Djie, Studio Drift. Coded Nature (2018). She was co-curator of the exhibition It’s our F***ing Backyard. Designing Material Futures (2022) with Stedelijk’s design curator Amanda Pinatih. Most recently she co-curated MODERN – Van Gogh, Rietveld, Léger and Others with Stedelijk’s researcher Maurice Rummens. Catalogues accompanied several of these exhibitions. She has written for Het Financieele Dagblad, published several opinion pieces in NRC Handelsblad and articles in catalogues of, among others, the Centre Pompidou, MoMA and Vitra Design Museum.

[1] [Charlotte Perriand], ‘Wood or Metal? A Reply to Mr.Gloag’s article in our January issue by Charlotte Perriand, who as champion of new ideas, has adopted an original style of expressing them’, The Studio 97 (1929), pp. 278-279.

[2] For more information about the chair by Winfield and the history of metal furniture see: Ingeborg de Roode with Ginger van den Akker, ‘Metal is a Revolution’: A New Material in Furniture Design?, in: I. de Roode and M. Rummens (ed.), MODERN. Van Gogh, Rietveld, Léger and Others, exh.cat. Amsterdam (Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam) 2023, pp. 29-40.

[3] See: mannesmann-stainless-tubes.com