Planta, John

Fulneck, near Leeds, Yorkshire; cabinet and spinning-wheel maker (fl.1764–c. 1825)

John Planta was born in Jamaica on 16 November 1764 and received into the Moravian community at Fulneck in 1798, where he worked as a cabinet maker. He was last recorded as being Baines in 1822, although it may allude to his son, another John (b.1802), who was trained in the same trade. 

Planta specialized in making refined mahogany flax spinning-wheels, often enhanced with crossbanding and ivory fitments; a little drawer below the platform usually contains a printed label: ‘Made by JOHN PLANTA, | AT | FULNECK, near LEEDS’. (Fig. 14). Planta's wheels all conform to a distinctive pattern, although he produced utility, standard and de luxe versions, sometimes with extra attachments such as an articulated candle-arm, a cup for holding water or a turned stump to assist in making thread up into hanks. 

Planta's wheels incorporate an automatic bobbin traverse to ensure even winding, a sophisticated mechanism invented in 1793 by John Antes, a fellow Moravian from Fulneck. Planta received internal payments for various small articles such as bellows, embroidery frames, firescreens, tea-caddies, work-boxes, writing desks, etc., but his label has never been noted on such items. 

An elegant wheel made by Planta about 1801 for Mrs Rhodes of Armley House, Leeds is now at Temple Newsam; other labelled examples are preserved at the V&A; Cannon Hall, Yorkshire; Heath Hall, Manchester and Colonial Williamsburg; over twenty models have been recorded. [Archives at the Church of the United Brethren and the Boys’ School, Fulneck.

A spinning wheel was purchased in the Netherlands and restored by David Bryant in 2024 [illustrated in RFS Newsletter, No. 82, pp. 10-11]. 

Sources: DEFM; Gilbert, Christopher, ‘John Planta of Fulneck’, Furniture History, 1970]; Bryant, Valerie and David, 'John Planta Spinning Wheel Restoration', RFS Newsletter, No. 82, Winter 2025, pp. 9-11.