by George Edmund Street
An oak Judge's armchair, circa 1882
Designed by George Edmund Street (1824-1881)
Manufacture attributed to Gillow (1731-1986), later upholstery
Provenance: The Royal Courts of Justice (The Law Courts)
Height 104cm (41")
Width 64cm (25")
Depth 51cm (20")
£5,500
This chair forms part of the suite designed and made for the Law Courts in 1882. Each court room had one Judge's chair and two or three Clerk's chairs. Elsewhere, the Barrister's chairs would be in their robing room. Finally, the hall chairs would be in the corridors. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has a Clerk's chair in its collection, item No M.2003.12. The Victoria & Albert Museum has a hall chair in its collection as does the Metropolitan Museum.
There are approx 100 court rooms and Judge's chambers and so presumably only 100 or less of the Judge's chairs were made, depending on their intended purpose (chambers or court room). The Royal Courts of Justice have only a few of these chairs still in situ, the rest have been replaced with modern office chairs.
The Judge's secure corridor which links the Judge's chambers and the court rooms displays many early photographs of past Judges, most of which are shown sat in these chairs, (this photograph shows the use of buttoning on the arm pads).
The inscription to the underside (CC1) appears to be contemporary to the chair and could either stand for 'County Court 1' or 'Criminal Court 1'. The back of the chair has a broad green painted brush stroke, this would have been used to indicate that this chair was to be upholstered in green leather, this would match the Clerk's chairs and the cushions used on the benches. The chair also has a small piece of green leather inside one of the castors used to improve the fit. The court rooms were upholstered in red, green or blue.
The furniture remaining in situ is upholstered in later red leather (with no buttoning on the arms). It is feasible that this was done in 1925 as this example has an upholsterer's inscription on the inside of the back that reads 'J. O. Bennet 1925'.
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