My Windsor Chairs

 

I am drawn to chair-making because I love the beauty of the Windsor’s many forms as well as the challenge of creating furniture which is all curves and angles. I like how playing with the angles at which legs enter the seat – the rake and splay – or adjusting the bow onto the spindles can completely change the appearance of a chair. I enjoy the play of light across a hand-carved seat and the subtle variations between the turned parts. Building Windsor chairs is as much art as it is a craft.

 

I am self-taught with thirty-five years of experience as a cabinetmaker. My ability as a Windsor chair-maker has been recognized by Early American Life magazine, www.ealonline.com/directory/, where I am listed as one of the top two hundred traditional craftsmen in America. I have been juried into the magazine’s annual Directory of Craft numerous times over the past twenty-three years – and as recently as 2017. According to Early American Life’s criteria for inclusion in the   Directory the jurors consider me a master craftsman. Quite a compliment to be sure.

 

The following gallery of my work reflects a sampling of the Windsor chairs I have made over the years. Some, like my Rhode Island High-back Fan-back, are my unique creations. Others are reproductions of antique Windsor chairs I have created for museums, antique dealers and private individuals. If you have a favorite Windsor chair and have always wanted a set made to match, I would be honored to reproduce it for you. Or, if you are looking for a chair or turning pattern and don’t see it in the gallery, please let me know.

 

I make each chair myself. The chairs are made from locally harvested pine, maple and ash. My Windsor chairs are beautiful, strongly built, hand-crafted with pride, and built to last for generations.