MUSEUM PIECES
DISCOVER UNUSUAL PIECES FOUND IN THE PERMANENT COLLECTIONS OF GALLERIES AROUND THE COUNTRY.
STICK FURNITURE IS ANCIENT and examples can be found in many different cultures. In Australia, the tradition was strongest in northern Tasmania in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Craftsmen — including Jimmy ‘Possum’ (so-called because he lived in the bush, perhaps in a hollow tree), Mick Cook, Lennie Longford, and members of the Larcombe family — mostly lived in and around Deloraine. They made chairs for their own use and to sell, supplementing their income as timber workers and farmers. Locals with long memories tell tales of Jimmy Possum bringing a chair into town to sell for a few shillings as late as the 1930s.
Several members of the Larcombe family made furniture for use on their farms. The chair below, made by George in about 1900, is an outstanding example. George’s chair has the back legs passing through the slab of the seat and forming supports for the arms of the chair. This construction technique found in Irish stick furniture is used by several of the Tasmanian chairmakers and suggests their Irish origin. Individual characteristics can sometimes help identify a maker. Chairs made by the Larcombes usually have slats instead of spindles for the back supports.
The chairs were made from slabs of blackwood for the seat, with other native hardwoods, including eucalypt and tea tree, used for legs and arms. These robust, hard-wearing timbers were good for making stick furniture as craftsmen relied on pegs rather than nails, screws and joints in their construction. Chairs were often painted and used on verandahs.
This armchair was donated to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery by Mark Lewis, the great grandson of George Larcombe. Like many similar examples of stick furniture it has been treasured by the descendants of the maker. Tasmanian stick chairs are rarely offered for sale. They are true museum pieces.
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
Dunn Place, Hobart, Tasmania tmag.tas.gov.au