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Discover why lockdown is not as bad as a trip to the SouthPole and one reader corrects a correction chair
Recent months have been difficult for us all. Thankfully, I’ve brightened my evenings reading my Antique Collecting magazines. In the May edition (Three to See online) I found out how to virtually view Queen Mary’s doll’s house. The detail in each room is amazing. Viewing this work of art online is a joy to behold. Well done Royal Collection Trust and thank you Antique Collecting for writing about it. Mary Mulligan, by email
Bill Forrest’s antiques quiz (May issue The Armchair Collector) was fun. However, the chair identified in question 10 is not a correction chair, but simply a child’s high chair. I attach an image of a correction chair (also known as a deportment chair). It was reputed to have been designed in the 1830s by Sir Astley Cooper (17681841), who was a surgeon and anatomist. Whether he did design or invent the chair is open to debate, but its tall straight back and small, narrow seat were said to prevent “fidgeting and slouching” and, apparently, to teach children to sit up straight. Correction has a
Our star letter receives a copy of Bulgari Treasures of Rome by Vincent Meylan worth £55. Write to us at Antique Collecting, Sandy Lane, Old Martlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 4SD or email magazine@ accartbooks.com
The first sentence of a recent article on Chinese books (May issue Pressing Matters) refers to the new collecting categories appearing in the Chinese art market.
Star letter
Above right A 19th-century glass snuff bottle, Chinese
Right In comparison to the experience of the crew of the Terra Nova, lockdown is easy
Left Mary explored Queen Mary’s doll’s house online. Image © Royal Collection Trust / Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2020
Below The chair wrongly stated as a correction chair
Below left A real correction chair (as corrected by Janusz)
With this in mind, may I suggest Chinese snuff bottles? There are some very nice examples around, with the world record set at more than £1m. They come in all sorts of materials including jade, glass porcelain and amber with many painted very interestingly inside. Bob Copley, by email
(The editor writes: Many thanks for your suggestion, we welcome ideas from readers, email magazine@accartbooks.com)
Lockdown has made us do many things we’d probably rather not: cutting my husband’s hair and decluttering the loft are two that spring to mind. During the latter I came across a battered book by Apsley Cherry-Garrard whose name struck a chord not just because it is so unusual, but May’s issue (Around the Houses) featured the sale of a set of his watercolours. The book is a vivid account of the young explorer’s part in Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole in 1910-13. It’s a tale of grit and perseverance and really brought home the fact that lockdown is not that bad. B. Markson (Mrs), by email
Be part of the conversation on Twitter and Instagram @antiquemag doub It wa post app double-meaning in this context. It was supposed to correct bad posture but it was also used, apparently, to correct (ie punish)
a na be be a naughty school child who would be sent to sit on it. It would have been very uncomfortable to sit Th Ch J S
sit on for a prolonged period! The Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood has one such chair. Janusz KarczewskiSlowikowski, Manchester,
b by email
10 ANTIQUE COLLECTING
