Wellington Chair

I notice that Taylor and Fletcher auctioneers have the ‘Wellington Chair’ up for auction on March 1. According to the Daily Mail the chair could fetch up to £8,000!  whilst an ‘expert’ in a local paper put an estimate on it as high as £20,000.

And this struck a chord with me, as many years ago I remember seeing such a chair at Belvoir Castle. So, I wondered, just how many pieces of furniture were actually made from the famous Elm tree that stood at ‘Wellington’s Crossroads’ on the battlefield of Waterloo? I did a quick bit of research and found an article by A.E. Gunther in the September 1977 bulletin of the British Museum, whereby it seems that in the autumn of 1818 a gentlemen by the name of John George Children purchased the tree from the Belgian farmer on whose land it had stood. Children shipped it back to England and commissioned Chippendale the Younger to make “various items of furniture out of its timber”. Three chairs were made and one, known as the ‘Wellington Chair’ was presented to King George IV and Gunther asserts that this was still to be found in the Royal Collections at St James Palace in 1967. The second chair was presented to the Duke of Wellington and according to the Daily Mail  in 2008 still resides in his private apartments at Apsley House. The third chair was last known to be in the possession of the Duke of Rutland, and I personally saw this chair at Belvoir castle about 10 years ago and indeed the Duchess of Rultand confirms its presence in her book on the castle that was published in 2009.

As the location of all three chairs has been established as late as 1967, the recent auction story in the Daily Mail asserting that the ‘Wellington Chair’ for auction was purchased by its vendor in the 1950s raises the eyebrows somewhat, especially given the values concerned. So was A.E. Gunther, who was a prominent historian at the British Museum (and incidentally, or coincidentally, J G Children was Assistant Keeper at the Natural History Museum), incorrect in stating that there were only three chairs made from the Elm Tree?

The auctioneers state that they found some provenance from an article in a 1936 edition of the Gentlemen’s Magazine, and yet that august magazine ceased publication in 1922. However my research indicated that volume 156 (p290) of the same magazine published in 1834 corrects hearsay in a book review of ‘Thomas Dykes travel memoirs’ and states that J G Children was the purchaser of the said elm tree and that he did make a chair, but that it was not for sale. So could the chair that is up for auction be of doubtful provenance? A mystery that requires further research, particularly on behalf of the potential purchaser. Certainly a question that I will be asking of eminent historian Professor Jeremy Black who will be accompanying our Waterloo Campaign tour this June.

James Arnold's 'Napoleon on the Danube'

Wading my way through James Arnold's 'Napoleon on the Danube' in preparation for The Cultural Experience's tour of the same name - see http://www.theculturalexperience.com/battlefield_tours/vienna.php.
I read his 'Crisis on the Danube' many years ago, which I remember enjoying. The latter dealt with the opening battles of the 1809 campaign in Germany - Ratisbonne, Eckmuhl, etc, whereas this one deals with Aspern-Essling and Wagram.
Arnold writes really well - an easy author to get to grips with. His description of Aspern-Essling is very good as his round up of other worldwide events concurrently taking place in 1809. The book lacks a bit of balance because its light on Austrian sources. However he needs to understand that river banks are defined as left and right when one faces the direction of flow of a river. Either he has got that wrong or he erroneously believes that  the Danube flows from east to west. These are errors that he repeats throughout, and given that much of this book is about the crossing of the Danube, they can very much confuse the reader. Also the maps (in my 1990's edition) are appalling - I suspect that he or his 'cartographer' where trying to get to grips with the latest 'drawing' software, which in the early 1990s was pretty bad compared to what it available today. If this book has been reprinted, I hope that the publishers have the good sense to have the maps redrawn. Failing that, you will need to get hold of other maps to facilitate your understanding - especially with the manoeuvring of 5/6 July.
Overall though, a good read so far and despite my criticisms (and anyhow you have been forewarned) I would recommend this book. I'll update this review when I've finished it.
Really looking forward to Vienna though.

Salamanca and Corunna battlefield tours

No doubt keenness to avoid the Olympics has been a reason why our Salamanca Anniversary and Retreat to Corunna battlefield tours have proved so popular. Or it could be that the inimitable Major Gordon Corrigan is our expert?

Setting up the 2012 battlefield tour programme

After what seems to have been months of hard work; historical research, creating itineraries, checking practicalities and availability, liaising with guides and tour managers, writing the copy, sourcing suitable images and helping with the overall design – I am pleased to announce that  I signed off the final proofs for the 2012 tour brochure. And I can tell you that my shoulders feel considerably lighter.

We have got plenty of new tours to whet your appetite as well as many familiar ones. And some new guides too. We have Mick Holtby taking us on a battlefield tour to India in search of Wellington but also to Plassey and Kohima. Gordon Corrigan will be traipsing over the battlefield of Salamanca on its 200th anniversary and following Sir John Moore to Corunna. I’ve got a couple of new Napoleonic trips lined up: the 1809 battles around Vienna and Napoleon’s 1812 campaign from Smolensk to Moscow. Fred Hawthorne will be leading a new Western Theater American Civil War battlefield tour and John Drewienkiewicz will be taking us around the 1866 Austro-Prussian Warbattlefields. Gary Sheffield has a new General Haig tour on the Western Front and I am pleased that Robert Kershaw has agreed to lend his expertise to our Great Patriotic War and Berlinb attlefield tours. Patrick Mercer has devised a really in-depth battlefield tour around Monte Cassino, whilst we welcome Chris Pugsley who has created his own Operation Mercury battlefield tourto Crete. And a final mention to Tony Smith who will be guiding our Falkland Islands battlefield tour.