Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 November 1901 — THE CORONATION CHAIR. [ARTICLE]

THE CORONATION CHAIR.

1 Proteat Against an Attempt to Make It Look "Smart.” The coronation chair is one of the most interesting pieces of historic furniture that exists; as a venerable witness in the long history of this country its value cannot be overestimated, and not only so, but as a work of art, made by order of King Edward I to Inclose the stone from Scone, its importance is equally great. What was the fate that befell this chair under the sympathetic charge of the officials? Mature reflection convinced these gentlemen that it did not look sufficiently "smart,” and, no doubt, had it been placed, gray with age and history, on the "bath red” spotted carpet, surrounded as it was with the gimcrack brass railings from St.. James’ palace, It would have stood a silent and yet eloquent witness against modern official taste. The chair was placed in the hands of the upholsterers. It was smeared with brown stain and varnish, and otherwise tinkered by Messrs. Banting's man. Dragged along by cundry workmen over the unprotected mosaic pavement of Abbot Ware, I myself saw the chair brought round from the recesses where it had been ''doctored.” The flat surface of the Chair, back, and arms, still retain in places the ancient gesso ornamentation. Into these surfaces Mr. Wright, the clerk of works of the Abbey, found men driving “tacks” to hold some of their upholsteries, and very properly protested.--Nineteenth Century.