Robert Francis lives in Bryantville, Massachusetts, a small village of Pembroke. Here Francis operates a small one man Windsor chair shop in the truest sense. Responsible for everything from selecting the logs to delivering the finished chairs. Robert shaves, turns, steams, and wedges a chair of strength and incredible beauty. His chairs are made one at a time using traditional tools and techniques so no two chairs are exactly alike.
The Windsor chairs Francis crafts are constructed the same way they were 250 years ago. The wood is split, shaved and steam bent using only hand tools. His chairs look and feel the same way a brand new chair did in the 1700s.
Francis has been a woodworker for thirty years. After a visit eight years ago to Old Deerfield, Massachusetts, he became fascinated with the Windsor chairs on display and knew he had to learn the skills needed to make these striking pieces. The more he learned, the more he knew he had found the perfect way to satisfy his love of woodworking.
An authentic Windsor chair is a time proven design. And there is no doubt that a hand-made chair has a look and character that cannot be created by any other method.
The entry deadline for the 2023 Directory of
Traditional American Crafts has passed. We are now processing entries and submitting
them to our jurors. We will contract entrants after the jurors have made ther decisions.
BACKGROUND
