Sanpete County Artist Builds Windsor Chairs As They Were Meant to

DATE
1 Sept. 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
This is part of an occasional series by the Sanpete County Travel and Utah Heritage Highway 89 Alliance on the people and places
along U.S. Highway 89.
Sanpete County Artist Builds Windsor Chairs
As They Were Meant to Be!
By Christian Probasco
For the National Mormon Pioneer Heritage Area
SPRING CITY—Jonathan Jones is one of those rare people you hear about who
turned what would be a negative life event for most folks into a big positive. In
2002, he was laid off from a job he had held for 28 years, in the security department
of a corporate bank in Kaysville, Utah. With seven children depending on him and
his wife Bonnie, he decided to turn his hobby of woodworking into his vocation.
“I wish I had started 28 years earlier,” he says.
With a basic knowledge of furniture making and an eye for good
craftsmanship, Jones decided to attend a chair making class at the Windsor Institute
in New Hampshire. He studied under renowned master chair maker Mike Dunbar.
Later, he also studied under Curtis Buchanon, who is also a master craftsman, in
Tennessee.
After some practice, Jones was making Windsor chairs of the kind you
The traditional Windsor has
don’t see in most furniture stores but do see in antique shops.
been the inspiration for
The chair Jones fell in love with was first produced in the late 1600s in
countless variations such as
High Wycombe, England. It got its name from the nearby city of Windsor on the
this contemporary Windsor
Thames River, from which many of the chairs were shipped to London. American
arrow back arm chair Jones
crafted from walnut,
colonists adapted the simple but sturdy design to the materials at hand. The
butternut and white oak.
colonial version usually had a slightly thicker seat, as the stronger elm carved for
This chair gets its name from
that purpose by the English was harder to come by in the states. However, the
its spiked back slats.
American pine, bass or poplar seat was easier to shape.
Photo by Jonathan Jones
Jones’ biggest problem at the beginning of his new career was that the
varieties of wood he needed to build his chairs—hickory, oak, maple and eastern
white pine—weren’t, and aren’t, available west of the Mississippi. So he used to drive to various points east
each year to pick up the raw materials. Now he says he has found a supplier who will ship him what he needs.
The postage is expensive, but not as costly as making the journey.
About the same time Jones was switching gears, Bonnie, was experiencing back problems which put her
out of a job as a postal carrier. With no fixed employment to tie them down, they decided to move to Spring
City, a farming town and artists’ colony about 90 miles south of Salt Lake City.
Jones now produces chairs and Shaker furniture out of his shop adjacent to his home on Main Street in
Spring City and teaches furniture making at the Traditional Building Skills Institute at Snow College in nearby
Ephraim. He has won the prestigious “America’s Best” award from “Early American Life” Magazine for three
consecutive years.
Jones says the two concerns he hears most from prospective customers are doubts about the chairs’
comfort and its durability. Both worries go away when they sit in one of his works of art. The seats are
generally made of a softer wood like eastern white pine. The
flexible spindles on the back and sides are carved from thin, flexible
strips of hickory or oak which have been rived along the grain and
steamed. The splayed legs are typically made of sturdy maple. The
solid design supports even the generously-proportioned with no
complaints.
Traditional Windsor chairs are fitted together with tapered,
self-tightening round tenons secured with wedges, and secured with
hide glue. “Self-tightening” means that every time someone puts
weight on the chair, the elements are forced further into their joints.
Windsor chairs are ubiquitous in the United States, but
well-crafted versions are not. Jones doesn’t have much regard for
Jones uses a shaving horse to hold the spindles
for his chair while he shapes them with his
factory chairs, which usually begin falling apart a few months
drawknife. The horse, which was common in
post-purchase. With mass produced Windsor chairs, the elements
households before the machine age, is really just
don’t
have a tapered fit; mortise and tenon joints in the arms and
a combination of a seat and foot-operated clamp.
legs are driven in to the shoulder and quickly pry themselves
Photo by Christian Probasco
loose.
Factories compensate for the poor quality of the chair’s
joints by overbuilding them, bulking up the frame and destroying
the chair’s supple line. Typically, says Jones, the spindles on
store-bought chairs will be “as fat as my thumb.”
Jones’ chairs weigh half as much as the mass produced
versions but are many times stronger, with lithe proportions
which are pleasing to the eye. And Jones expects each one to last
on the order of centuries.
“I liken custom-made Windsor chairs to homemade
bread,” he says. “The store bought bread is technically the same,
but once you’ve tasted homemade, you know there’s a lot of
difference.”
An introduction on the website for Jones’ shop reads:
“These chairs….were designed to be made by hand.
When the machine age arrived, the construction of beautiful, well
built Windsors disappeared. Windsor chairs simply cannot be
mass-produced by machine and retain their delicate grace and
strength.”
Jones can put a chair together in about a week, though he
is sometimes backlogged with orders. His website is at
www.jockswindsors.com. He can be reached at 801-915-2015.
For much more information on Windsor chairs,
go to www.windsorchairresources.com/index.html.
Jonathan Jones stands by his chairs, and
his shaker furniture. The chairs were
traditionally finished with milk paint to
give a uniform appearance to the varieties
of wood used in their construction, but
they also look good bare.
Photo by Christian Probasco