About 37 years ago in Newark I bought a Victorian armchair which
became my counselling seat. I had met a tax inspector on the train during my days of commuting to London four days a week. He had told me how, when he interviewed suspects he always occupied a higher perch to give him more of a sense of power. I did the opposite because I wanted to keep clients at ease. They were already giving me the power of their trust.
Not only was my chair lower on the ground but it was long in the seat and therefore just right for my legs. Why was this so?
A bustle is a padded undergarment or wire frame used to add fullness, or support the drapery, at the back of women’s dresses in the mid-to-late 19th century.[1][2] Bustles are worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging. Heavy fabric tended to pull the back of a skirt down and flatten it. As a result a woman’s petticoated skirt would lose its shape during everyday wear (from merely sitting down or moving about). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bustle
This chair accommodated a behind bolstered by a bustle, the owner of which could happily dangle her legs in comfort from nearer the edge. As can be seen, I must have worn my chair to a frazzle. Particularly as there is not much call for voluminous rear ends today, this chair was now occupying too much space.
https://derrickjknight.com/2025/01/27/repairs-and-refurbishment/ contains images of the Victorian rocking chair Dillon used to rock our great-granddaughter Ellie to sleep during her first two and a half years of life. It was already very creaky, and, a twenty-first birthday present from Jessica’s mother, I had never seen it without gaping joints. The above-mentioned post features Andrew Sharp carrying it off for refurbishment.
Today he brought it back, with every joint glued tight and no creaking to be heard.
He had noticed that the triangular blocks to hold the seat at the front were rather too small for the job, and replaced them.
The iron springs beneath the hessian were intact, but the material
needed replacing. Here, in his mobile, Andrew displays this process midway;
and here is the finished article ready to be placed on the blocks.
He is always keen to explain all his careful refurbishment.
Jackie was more than happy to try it out.
Andrew returned the refurbished rocker today and took the bustle chair off to auction. He had volunteered to do this and give us the proceeds. Because he was doing us a favour and we all knew this would simply be regarded as a project for a buyer we asked him to keep the money.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s wholesome shepherd’s pie; quite white cauliflower; crunchy carrots; fried chestnut mushrooms, and tasty gravy, with which she drank Diet Coke and I drank Whole Berry Cabernet Sauvignon 2021.