A Rare Yew Wood Low Back Windsor Armchair, impressed mark - E Gabbitass, Worksop (fl. 1839-1844)

This is an example of the most elaborate type of Windsor armchair produced in Worksop. The fully decorative 6 pierced top splat, with the triple pierced bottom. Elaborate leg and arm turnings and beautifully marked yew wood. This was probably the most expensive design of chair made in Worksop. 

Elizabeth Gabbitass was the wife of John Gabbitass (Worksop’s first and probably finest chair maker), who continued the business for a short time, after her husband’s death.

There is a great similarity between Elizabeth Gabbitass’s “best” chairs and those of her fellow maker Isaac Allsop. It would not be unreasonable to assume that the chair makers were literally that – and they bought their legs and arm supports from a local lathe worker, who would have had different skills to the chair maker. As a boy, growing up in Worksop, I remember a woodyard and turners business on Gateford Road, who made boxwood handles for chisels, which were manufactured in nearby Sheffield. Sadly, the woodyard burnt down in the 1960s.

Worksop, Nottinghamshire, circa 1840.

Height 35.5 inches.

Ref 2037

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