Joseph Banks – Travelling chair

Joseph Banks – Travelling chair RBG Kewensis M00147

Half upholstered naval campaign folding chair

On loan from the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, this chair was displayed in exhibitions in the Captain Cook Museum first in 2007 and again in 2019, when the following note was put together. It remains relevant not only because this particular chair once belonged to Joseph Banks and was used by him on board Endeavour, but because it throws light on the wider use of types of functional furniture both on board and ashore.  See for example the blog on astronomers tents

Much campaign furniture was manufactured in the 18th and 19th centuries, designed to be portable but also to provide some comfort in faraway places. The Royal Navy insisted on standard furniture which fitted on board ship. This chair is of a pattern current from around 1730 to the late 1800s. Banks bought his chair from one of three possible suppliers at New Cross, Southampton or Portsmouth.

The chair is slightly lower than a normal one so as to fit into a ship’s cabin. The pictures show the structure of the chair, which folds up concertina-style.

The names of the Marquis de Chabert-Cogolin and the Comte du Fleurieu, to give them their titles, may not be familiar to British readers, but were important figures in French During a battle the chairs would be stacked in a pile and lashed to the side of the ship. In that way they added another layer of very effective protection against cannon-fire.

A chair was made for Banks’s cabin on board the replica Bark Endeavour, now back in Sydney. It was not known at the time that the original was at Kew. It was assumed that Banks would have bought the most expensive type available, with upholstered back as well as seat, and therefore the replica chair is fully upholstered.

Banks’s cabin, replica Bark Endeavour Photo courtesy of Jonathan Farley, formerly of RBG Kew

The chair has remained at Kew since Banks took it there. Perhaps it served as a convenient chair to use when talking to the staff or pausing on a round of the Gardens?  Banks suffered badly from gout in his later years and it while he was using it at Kew that the castors were added.  Probably the first castors would have been made of wood as brass castors could not have been added before 1790.  Castors certainly added an extra mobility to what was already an extremely well adapted piece of furniture, though castors on board ship would not have been a good idea!

For many years its original context was not fully appreciated, and, as an interesting piece of furniture, it stood in a corridor in the old Herbarium building and was even occasionally used as a convenient seat!  However, in the last 40 years, as such objects became more valued, the historic significance of this artefact became fully appreciated.  Conservation was undertaken, woodworm treated, and the hinges strengthened, although additional support is necessary while on display.’

With thanks to Jonathan Farley and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew for their assistance in research and for information on the chair’s conservation                                  

SF January 2025