the Shakespeare of furniture
the chair, not the chairmaker...
Well, it’s April 23rd - which may or may not be William Shakespeare’s birthday. Often claimed to be, but no proof exists. He did die that day…but it’s often also marked as his birthday. So why bring it up? My craft genealogy project that you may have read about here involves a lot of writings left by two teachers/influences/friends of mine. One many of you are familiar with, in legend at least - Jennie Alexander. The other is a man named Daniel O’Hagan (1923-2000). You’ve heard me mention him here from time to time. He’ll figure prominently in the whole project/book when it’s done. And I don’t want to show you the best parts till we really get into it. But I think of him more and more as I get older and as I go deeper and deeper down the path of this project.
Daniel was a very private person, he did not want to draw attention to himself in any way. That’s why he isn’t really represented in woodworking magazines, books, etc. One place where the author got to tuck Daniel in is Scott Landis’ The Workbench Book - where you’ll find Daniel alongside Alexander, demonstrating green woodworking. That’s where I got the idea for the riving brake I use. But his desire for privacy is something I want to carefully respect, while still giving him the credit and recognition I think he deserves. A hard line to straddle.
And when you chase the thread of the Windsor chairs made by a bunch of people today - in my case for instance, I learned from Curtis Buchanan, who learned from Dave Sawyer, who learned green woodworking from Daniel. Over the past few years, Daniel’s family has given me access to many of his unpublished papers/writings - and for today I give you this one:
Chairs
The Shakespeare of Furniture…the Windsors
Time is not wasted on making real Windsors. They are excellent. The designs are handsome as well as the sturdiest. The materials are not only handsome in themselves but are ideally suited to the purpose made use of, w oak or hickory for the bows, hickory for the spindles; seat poplar or pine; the legs, maple or beech. The one piece seat with wedged legs will be a useful asset to any room for two hundred years.
What adjunct, what investment, what heirloom could be at once so beautiful & so useful and relatively inexpensive?
The Windsor marked the high water mark on chair-making. No wonder it is the favorite for formal or informal seating and decorating
May 4th 1966
There was no illustration with that card - but here’s one from some years later, his sketch of what he called a “library” chair - we’d call it a sackback now…
here’s a shot of 3 chairs I mostly made - left to right: the one I made when I was recently a student in Pete Galbert’s class. (top of the post painted red is the same chair) Galbert did the turnings ahead of time…so I made it, with help. Middle - I made that one here in my shop last year and the black one on the right I made in my old shop in Hingham Massachusetts about 1992. “Time was not wasted” making these chairs. It was more fun than I can stand…
Pete, I've heard O'Hagan's name come up a number of times (aside from your blog), and got the impression that he was a very skilled woodworker. I recall a story, perhaps apocryphal, about him riding his bike half way across the country to attend some woodworking event (perhaps Langsner's?). In any case, I'll be very interested in learning more. Looking forward to the book.
so are the Bard of these chairs?