19th Century Scottish Vernacular Shetland Driftwood Crofter Chair

For sale from W & W Antiques is charming Scottish vernacular survivor of a side chair from Shetland circa 1825-1875. This charming and small and simply designed chair is constructed of found, reclaimed or driftwood to create a very simple / naive design with robust characteristics. It looks to be pine or softwood (including the seat planks with other woods including oak in the construction) and has been later blue painted which has worn. The chair frame construction shows clear driftwood timbers with visible and prominent evidence of historic ship worm from when floating in the marine environment. The clear burrows of the Teredo worm / moullusc which is adept at burrowing through timbers at sea. These distintcive marks throughout the chair frame and uprights mark out the maritime origin of the foraged timbers used on Shetland and coastal communities when timber was a scarce commodity in these environments. This practice is also referenced to Learmont, D (1992) & Regional Furniture Volume VI; Driftwood furniture from Shetland. The chair is low with a strong, square and robust base constructed of Croft fashioned rails, front legs, stretchers and the rear legs. The chair in each piece looks to have been constructed with minimal and narrow parts. The wear marks, colouration, bleaching and construction make this small side chair an absolute blue charmer. It is in solid and stable antique condition given an age of circa 175 years. Chairs of this type can be seen in the Shetland folk museum and Lerwick museum but many of this type and age have simply been lost or later painted. A lovely little piece of vernacular history. It would make a great decorative side table, hall chair or decorative item in any house or cottage. If you are interested in multiple items, please contact us for combined postage.