Two Charles I Oak Joint Stools

To the left - A Fine Charles I Oak Low Stool

The top, cut from a single board of well-grained oak, is decorated with a pair of shallow incised lines running around the edge, and secured to the rails with four square oak pegs. The seat rails are also decorated, this time with a complicated run moulding along the lower edge. To the top of the baluster legs are a series of turned rings, which are repeated below the stretcher to form the feet.

A fabulous rich colour and surface – the best.

English, circa 1630-40.

Width 11.5 inches, depth 12 inches, height 13 inches.

Ref 2928

To the right - An Excellent Charles I Oak Low Stool

Some say the use of these small stools were for children (child’s joint stools). Others prefer that they were used as footstools. Indeed in Charles Dickens’ novel, Oliver Twist, there is mention of “an old woman too, had drawn a low stool to the cold hearth”.

In this instance I feel the stool is definitely for the use of a child – it has the exact, but smaller proportion, of its large cousin. Here, the single piece top, with moulded edge, is secured to the seat rails with four square dowels. The seat rails are moulded along the bottom edge, and everything is supported on short stout baluster legs, joined by stretchers above the original turned feet, or “toes”.

A further feature worthy of note is the “splay” on the legs of the stool – a rare feature on a low stool, as often the legs are totally upright, again giving credence to the thought that this was made for a child, a faithful copy in miniature of a full-sized adult stool.

English, circa 1630.

Width 14 inches, depth 9 inches, height 14 inches.

Ref 2916