Hewitt, Richard (1722- 1777)
Hewitt (or Hewett), Richard
Upton-cum-Chalvey, Slough, Bucks.; chair maker and wheeler (b. c.1722- d.1777)
Windsor chair of elm, fruitwood, ash, beech and stained red recorded, bearing fragments of paper label on the bottom of the seat, reading ‘RICHARD HEWETT / CHAIR-MAKER, / At Slough, in the …ar Windsor, / MAKES and sells…Forest Chairs / and all sorts…’ (V&A W.9-1988. Illus. Gilbert (1991), fig. 185).
Labelled Windsor chair, made 1770-80 [W.9-1988]. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Hewett was known as an associate and possible successor of fellow Windsor chair maker, John Pitt (b.1714-d.1759). He was described at his burial, 7 September 1777 as a wheeler, or wheelwright.
Sources: DEFM;Gilbert, English Vernacular Furniture 1750-1900 (1991);Parrott, ‘Observations on the Earliest Known Windsor Chairs’, Regional Furniture (2005); Parrott, ‘Five Generations of Buckinghamshire Chair Makers: the Lovegrove Family of Eton and Upton cum Chalvey’, Regional Furniture (2011).
The original entry from Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840 can be found at British History Online.
Object
Ornamentation/Design