Hall Porters' Chairs

 

Aforementioned lamp table

When I moved to Bury St Edmunds in February of this year, serious downsizing had to be managed in the face of the move from a large family flat in  Bruges, to a rather more modestly-sized apartment. The process was complex and occasionally difficult. Where to direct the unneeded furniture and impedimenta? How to part with beloved pieces, part of my life for 40/50 years like the Regency Linen Cupboard or the 1920s lamp table. Eventually, all was solved, mostly given, occasionally sold, generally for ridiculous prices. For example, £60 for the lovely lamp table which I longed to keep!! I would have loved to have given that to someone in my family but failed to find anyone interested! This is almost certainly part of the normal ageing process and one which has to be seized and accomplished like so much else!

Smalley Hall, Derbyshire.

Perhaps my total favourite item of furniture over the years, has been the beloved Hall Porter’s Chair which I 

Forest Farm, Papplewick.

obtained at an auction at Smalley Hall in Derbyshire, soon after I had sold Waingroves Hall near Ripley in Derbyshire in April 1983.. I was temporarily storing my furniture, and staying, in an empty cottage on my sister’s farm, Forest Farm, near Papplewick, between Mansfield and Nottingham, and she and I went to the Smalley Hall two day sale together and had a great time. I know Esme bought at least one carpet and a rug, plus several more items, and I know I saw the hall porter’s chair for the first time and fell for it, knowing nothing about it but loving its appearance. I also bought a small Chinese rug from the servants’ quarters, still in service. Oh, happy times!! I had recently received, unsought, a cheque for £400 from the tax people, which was apparently the unexpected bonus of the recent separation from my husband. I never did understand it all but received it gratefully, £400 being a not inconsiderable sum in 1983! As the chair featured on Day 2 of the sale, this meant I dare not bid for anything else as my bonus £400 could all be needed in the pursuit of the Chair. I did eventually buy it for a total of £440, a small fortune for me then, and only after a bidding tussle with an unseen person, though the Delight in the purchase dominated the day!

Object of desire for almost
40 years.

It now resides in all its natural splendour in my son’s home, its most recent abode!! It was described in the auction booklet thus: 

Victorian oak-framed hall porter’s chair upholstered in green velour, the lofty winged back with arched canopy and scroll arms, on turned supports with brass castors. The estimated price range was £200/£350.

Porters’ chairs originated in 17^th century France, usually made of cane or wicker and known as ‘guerites’ [sentries]. The name suggests a defensive mode though popularly then these chairs were often used for the elderly and infirm to protect them from draughts. The hall porter was an important cog in the machinery of the large and affluent house; he was the gatekeeper, admitting or refusing callers based on his memory for the faces and names of his employer’s acquaintances, and his assessment of the individual caller’s social status and suitability. In an 1857 book, The Household Manager, Charles Pierce wrote:

I think this may resemble 
a guerite, popularly used by
invalids and the elderly in
the 18th century.

“If his master be a rich man, and a charitable one, that master is being for ever applied to by the distressed, the needy and the imposter. … Hence is called into exercise the necessity for the porter’s searching and discriminative eye, and into his scrupulous pause before receiving a letter or answering an enquiry.”

Georgian Hall Porter's Chair
circa 1820.

Entrusted with this crucial role in maintaining the security of the house, the hall porter was expected to man his post at all times, sleeping in his chair after dark and often taking meals there. Some porters’ chairs had drawers beneath the seat where supplies could be kept and occasionally there are examples of lined drawers for hot coals to supply warmth in draughty halls. Most hall porters’ chairs were large and often hooded, to exclude draughts and were incidentally helpful acoustically, slightly amplifying the volume of the voice. But, with progress in other forms of security, the hall porter’s chair was considered old-fashioned by the mid 19^th century and became obsolete by the early 20^th century.

Interestingly, hooded wicker chairs for protection against sun and wind were very popular on
Scheveningen Beach, near The Hague, Netherlands; in fact, between circa 1860 and 1972, these canopied beach chairs were a noted feature of the Scheveningen scene and there is a recent interest locally in reviving the fashion!

Scheveningen beach in Edwardian times.