Edwin Skull

1810 - 1873

Edwin Skull (1810 - 1873) was from a well-known family of High Wycombe chair makers. With his brother Walter, he followed his father Charles Skull, into the chair making business. The two brothers expanded the business and in an age before the railway system had gained momentum they were sending their chairs to London and to the north with a depot in Liverpool, a thriving port.

It appears that the joint business was named after the elder brother Edwin. A year before Edwin's death in 1873, Walter purchased John Tilbury's Chair Factory in High Wycombe and set up in business with his 23 year old son Charles Edwin and the Skull chair making business continued. The progression continued with Charles taking over the business in 1884 and in turn, his sons taking over.

Edwin Skull issued a display card which illustrated over 100 different chairs from their workshops. Sitting proudly in the middle of the letterhead, and the only chairs and stools to be named, are Skull's Patent Plectaneum Chair in American Birch. It is this chair that is of interest to collectors of campaign furniture and the firm showed 16 different variations on the chair or stool on their card.

The patent stamped to the back dates the design to 1863.

A good article on the Skull family by Sally Scagell can be read here:
http://www.galaxypix.com/Sally/skulls.html