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William Morris / Arts And Crafts - Sussex Arm Chair - Lincolnshire

Description

The rush bottomed Sussex chair is one of William Morris's most iconic chairs

Made from ebonized Ash

These chairs were named after a country chair found in Sussex. Philip Webb designed this model for Morris & Co but other firms like Liberty & Co and Heals also produced their own versions.” I comment on how they bear such a similarity to late 18th and early 19th century chairs in the English vernacular tradition and William agrees.

The Sussex chair is an exceptional example of an idealised form matched with function. William Morris, frustrated by mediocre contemporary industrial design, looked to the past for simple, tried and true designs, which could be revived. The Sussex chair was based on a country chair found in Sussex. That chair was the source of inspiration for the turned frame and rush seat (this type of chair was fashionable between 1790 and 1820 and included elements such as the imitation bamboo frame and rush seat).

William Morris and his wife, Jane, used Sussex chairs in their first home, Red House, Bexleyheath, Kent, from 1860 and subsequently in their London house, Kelmscott House, Hammersmith. Morris's great friend, the artist Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) had Sussex armchairs in his studio, as did the sculptor, Alfred Gilbert (1854-1934). Robert Edis recommended this chair as 'excellent, comfortable and artistic' in his influential book, 'Decoration and Furnishing of Town Houses in 1881'. Examples from the Sussex range were supplied for students' rooms at Newnham College, Cambridge, and for galleries in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

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