Bill Slavin
And this time when he looked at the chair, for the first time he noticed the caption – a chair design that was developed in the Irish counties of Cavan Monaghan!
Chair-making is Ted Hodson’s passion. A mechanical designer by day, Ted’s evenings and weekends are often spent in his shop and house designing and making chairs. His dining room table is filled with a row of neatly turned legs and a chair seat, and if you look carefully in the corners of his living room, filled with chairs and tables all made by Ted’s hand, you may even see a wood-shaving or two.
Ted and his partner Marion Little moved to Millbrook from Victoria, B.C. about a year ago. Both are Ontario natives, but lived in Victoria for the past 21 years, raising their daughter Abi there. It doesn’t take long engaging Ted on the topic of chair-making for one to sense what a big part this plays in his life. An old friend of his father’s in Haliburton made reproduction Windsor chairs, and Ted remembers visiting his shop. These have become Ted’s favourite chairs as well – specifically the American Windsor chair of the late 18th C..
Our conversation soon evolves into a bit of a history lesson on chairs. Before the Windsor, which is typified by a separate wood seat with independent legs and back, earlier chairs were very different – straight-backed solid creatures, created by joiners. But the Windsor chair could be made with simpler tools and less-skilled labour, could be built by the village wheel wright or farmers with tools at hand. It was really the democratization of the chair, making something that once only rich people could own available to all. The American version of the chair, coming of age at the time of the revolution, has grown to become inextricably linked with America’s own sense of independence. Who was to know so much history rested in the seat of a chair?
He draws inspiration from photos, interpreting pictures from books of antique furniture and creating prototypes for each chair before he settles on a design that he is happy with. It is a matter of carefully constructing all the pieces, the legs and spindles and seats, mostly with traditional tools and methods. His spindles are usually carved by hand, shaved with a draw knife and spoke shave, while the backs and arms are steam bent using traditional methods and forms. Wood is hand split maple and ash from logs and he uses a brace and bit drill because he prefers the control that method gives him.
When asked why the American Windsor chairs specifically he replies that the designs are so good, evolved as they have from folk furniture to an urban modern product. He says that he also loves the earlier, more primitive stick chairs of Wales and Ireland, but there is a naivety to their construction that is hard to mimic.
Which brings us to the Cavan Monaghan chair. Many years ago Ted’s parents passed on a book on antique furniture from his grandparents’ trip to Ireland. One chair illustrated was a simple odd-shaped chair with a distinctive “W” arrangement of spindles in its back. He had often thought he would like to build it, but it was only after he had moved to Millbrook that he revisited the idea. And this time when he looked at the chair, for the first time he noticed the caption – a chair design that was developed in the Irish counties of Cavan Monaghan!
Ted thinks it unlikely that any chairs of this design made it to the new world. Most people emigrating sold all their worldly belongings, coming only with the few things you could put in a trunk.
But it is these things, the history and elegance, the blend of functionality and design, that continue to inspire Ted and his love of chair-making. He says making chairs full time would be his “dream job”. Regardless, he will continue to be out in his workshop or sitting in his living room evenings and weekends, doing what he loves best. Perhaps even one day creating the “Millbrook Chair”.
If you would like to see more of Ted’s work, visit his website at fernwoodfurniture.com.
