Tommy in the Lloyd Loom Chair

Here is Tommy in his favourite chair in the corner of the conservatory. Actually this is one of my favourite chairs too. It is an original Lloyd Loom, dated underneath - August 1939. Well it survived those six years of World War which is more than the Lusty factory in London, where the woven paper chairs were made, did. The works near the East India Dock were destroyed by the Luftwaffe on 7th September 1940; it being a Saturday the factory was closed and the only fatality was the factory cat. Poor puss - you enjoy your chair in his or her honor Tommy.

We also have another Lloyd Loom chair in a slightly different style and this one has a matching laundry box.

The top of the laundry box has an embroidery in silk under it's glass top. I don't know if this was original to the box or placed there later. I know that two members of the family were embroiderers so perhaps one of them did the work. I think maybe they did as I have a table cloth and napkins with the same 'crinoline lady' on them.

It is very pretty but sadly faded and watermarked as this laundry box and indeed the chairs have been in constant use as long as I can remember, which must be from about the age of 4 onwards. I would dearly love to know how it might be conserved but I expect I would be told to take it out of the lid and lay it flat in acid free tissue in an acid free cardboard box and keep it out of the light. I know this would preserve it but I really don't want to separate it from the box after all these years. Also I now know that we should have used special paint, like the Farrow and Ball paints, to repaint the chairs and next time we paint them we shall do so. I had the chair and box in my bedroom as a teenager and was allowed to take them with me when I got married and left home. Over the years the chairs have been painted again and again. The top chair was originally a darker green and the other chair and box were blue.

When we lived in Spalding in Lincolnshire a new Lloyd Loom factory opened up on an industrial estate in Pinchbeck which is very near to Spalding. Some of the new contemporary goods are wonderful and I covet several items, in particular this chair, but I still love my old Lloyd Looms and wouldn't ever want to part with them.