Dr Lucy Worsley meets Anselm Fraser and learns how to make a Thomas Chippendale chair leg at the Chippendale International School of Furniture.
She describes the great craftsman’s famous Director as “like an Ikea catalogue” and sees a Chippendale chair worth a £1 million.
At the Furniture School, historian Dr Lucy Worsley has a shot at making a Chippendale chair leg in the School’s workshop using traditional methods with a little help from Anselm. Apparently the mahogany may have been used as ballast in slave ships in Georgian times.
Anselm goes on to make some glue in the traditional method by heating it with a candle (apparently the apprentice would have had to pee in the glue pot to make the mixture sticky!).
You can see the programme on the BBC iPlayer (8pm on 2.5.12). Fast forward to 15 minutes into the programme when Chippendale furniture is introduced, and you can see Anselm and the Chippendale School of Furniture between 18 and 22 minutes into the programme. Go to this link to see the programme on BBC iPlayer (it’s at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01hbmsp/Antiques_Uncovered_Entertainment/ if link does not work).
