Desk Chair by Ross

An oak campaign Desk Chair by Ross & Co.

The chair is made to dismantle for travel but provides a very comfortable seat when set up. To breakdown the chair, the turned front legs are first unscrewed on their long bolt fittings. The back legs have a square section profile with chamfered corners. They are also fitted on long bolts that extend through the seat frame to fix into the uprights that support the back. The back legs also have mirror plates to receive bolts into the seat frame to fix them in the correct position. With these bolts removed, the legs can be unscrewed on their bolts. The uprights with the back are then lifted away from the seat frame. These two uprights each have a pair of lugs to help locate them to the seat frame. They also have long bolts fixing them to the back and will unscrew.

The front legs are numbered 2 and 3 although there does not appear to be any corresponding numbers to their positions on the underside of the seat frame. The back legs are marked 4 and 5 and the back supports 25 and 45. This seemingly random numbering is typical of Ross.

The leather upholstery is replaced but historic. The seat is sprung for comfort and the horseshoe back, padded and buttoned.

The brass name plaque is fixed to the underside of the front of the seat frame and gives the details of Ross & Co. Manufacturers 9, 10, 11 Ellis's Quay, Dublin. Ross used a number of different labels etc. but we have only ever seen these address numbers on this type of plaque. The name dates to after 1860 as they were previously known as E. Ross. The address numbers date to before 1865 when they stopped listing No. 11 in their adverts. Although this gives a 5 year timeline, it should be assumed that Ross carried on using the same brass plaques for much longer. We have had a mirror which had one of these plaques but the back of the looking glass was dated March 1876.

We have only had one other example of this Desk Chair from Ross in 20 years. It was mahogany and the back on that one had a higher section to the middle. They are not easy to find chairs. Circa 1865.