Mark Firley of The Furniture Record sent me some photos of a couple of high-back settles he’s encountered in his travels. One of them has a curved seat and back, like the example I showed yesterday.
But even more interesting are the photos Mark took of the joinery of the settle: Dovetails on an angle, through-tenons for the seat and a nice detail of the fantastic joint at the back where the backboards meet.
You can view Mark’s set of photos here on Flickr.
It’s almost enough visual information for me to build the settle. But sadly, I’ll have to travel to England to complete my research on this and other pieces.
— Christopher Schwarz
Sadly travel to England? Let`s go! I think we all could find some great woodworking history on that trip.
The good news is that this style of furniture can often be found in traditional English pubs.
That’s one for the back burner