Bailey Wood Products 6th Annual Fall Woodworker’s Fair
When: Saturday, October 20th 2018 – Rain or Shine
Where: 441 Mountain Drive, Kempton, PA 19529
Website: Baileywp.com
Admission: Free!
New to the Fall Woodworker’s Fair this year, Peter Wallace will be showing and selling his Windsor Chairs. Stop by at his booth. He will be happy to discuss his work, past and present, with you. Now in his own words…
Windsor Chairs by Peter H. Wallace
I have been making 18th Century Reproduction Furniture, mainly Windsor Chairs, for 22 years. Prior to this, I spent almost thirty years building houses and remodeling.
One day, while in my fifties, I realized that new home construction and remodeling were getting much too laborious for me. I decided to start a new business making entry doors, mantels, and other accessories for other home builders. One day, I saw a newspaper clipping offering Windsor Chair making classes by a local chair maker. After completing the one week class, I was off on my own with a new business I loved doing. Perhaps it was my grandfather, who was born in Scotland, and who had apprenticed as a wooden ship builder, who inspired me to become a serious woodworker. An old world woodworker, who came to this country when my father was 12, my grandfather brought with him a very specific set of skills that are now almost extinct. I was happy to continue some of what he had done in hisown lifetime.
My vision for my chair making business was simple: To offer classes to the public in making chairs and to make commissioned furniture for sale at shows along the East coast. After my third year making Windsors, I had a work list that ranged from one to three years of back-logged work. I was most fortunate to have customers who liked and wanted what I made.
Traditional furniture has fallen from favor with the American public for many reasons, but furniture makers are adapting to this change in taste by using traditional furniture construction techniques when making commissioned pieces for clients that are more modern in style.
My furniture was selected for inclusion in the Taunton Press book “The Custom Furniture Sourcebook, A Guide to 125 Craftsmen”. My pieces have also appeared in Fine Woodworking Magazine, Country Decorator Magazine, and Early American Life Magazine. Early American Life selected me numerous times as one of the “Best of 200 Craftsmen” in their annual directory. I was also a judge for the magazine’s annual directory for the Windsor Chair entries for two years. I have a piece in the permanent collection of the White House, and eleven pieces were chosen by the Garden Advisor of Hampton Court Palace to be reintroduced into English gardens where Windsors first appeared as lawn furniture, long before the American Revolution.
I am now beginning to offer my custom furniture for sale once again. I have a website www.windsor-chairs.com where many of my pieces are pictured along with contact information. Visits to my home and shop are welcomed, but please call ahead to make an appointment, in order to see samples of my work and talk with me about your interests.
