By Diane Walker
During his enthronement ceremony, Bishop Mike was placed in his cathedra where he was seated by the Archdeacon of Canterbury with the words ‘I place you in the Episcopal Seat of this Cathedral Church of St Peter’. The great 14th century wooden canopy of Exeter’s cathedra is one of the finest pieces of medieval craftsmanship, measuring 52ft 1in (15.875m) high. Whilst this magnificent wooden structure is celebrated, the historic chair used by the Bishop is often overlooked.
Although this chair is around 400 years old, it has only been in Exeter Cathedral since 1951. Formerly the property of the Dukes of Buccleugh at Boughton House in Northamptonshire, the chair was bought from Samuel Wilfred Wolsey for use in the Bishop’s Throne Canopy. The Dean and Chapter’s purchase was financed using part of a gift from Sir Arthur Reed who had served as MP for Exeter from 1931 until 1945.
S.W. Wolsey was a leading antiques dealer and oak furniture specialist. In 1968 the furniture historian R.W.P. Luff and Wolsey published ‘Furniture in England: The Age of the Joiner’. Many of the illustrations supplied by Wolsey for this book were photographs of furniture which had passed through his hands, including the chair now in Exeter Cathedral.
This type of upholstered chair, with its decoratively painted wooden framework, is a rare and important survival from the early seventeenth century. A few similar examples are documented in the collections of the National Trust and the V&A.