Posted 9 months ago
Laurabelle61
(76 items)
Antique Richmond adjustable school desk and chair made by the Hillis & Sons Co. Limited. Established by James Hillis 1865 in north end Halifax , Nova Scotia, Canada. They were well known for their Richmond ranges and furnaces . The company was lost once to a fire and a second time during the Halifax explosion when they also lost 40+ employees. This desk and chair are both adjustable and appear to be oak with cast-iron.. They do have the #3 on them. I was unable to find any online information on the # 3 , there is a similar desk and chair by Hillis & Sons that is in a Nova Scotia museum but is a number 1
Chair
ACADIAN HOUSE MUSEUM
Chair
ACCESSION NUMBER: 2001.07.01.23
CATEGORY: Seating Furniture
DATE: 1865 – 1917
MATERIALS: Wood; Metal
MEASUREMENTS: 28.5 cm L x 29 cm W x 58 cm H
MEASUREMENTS: 28.5 cm L x 29 cm W x 58 cm H x 28.5 cm L x 29 cm W x 58 cm H
MARKS/LABEL: Metal base stamped around the rim with
Hillis & Sons Ltd Halifax NS, Richmond Adjustable
NARRATIVE: Hillis & Sons Ltd was founded in 1865 by James Hillis. The company, located in Richmond, Halifax, was well-known in the Maritimes area for producing Richmond ranges and furnaces. However, the company’s plant was mostly destroyed by fire in 1913, and after it was rebuilt, it was completely destroyed in the Halifax Explosion.
The Halifax Explosion occurred at 9:04 am on December 6, 1917. The entire Richmond area was obliterated, and the principal executives of Hillis & Sons Ltd, Frank D. and H. B. Hillis, as well as between 41 and 45 employees were all killed.
Although Frank Hillis’s sons eventually reopened the company, the plant was moved to a new site.
DESCRIPTION: A wooden school chair with a splat forming part of the chair's back and an adjustable, one-legged steel base, with holes around the rim of the base for screwing the chair to the floor.
HISTORY OF USE: The chair was used in conjunction with a desk for school children to work at. The chair would have been screwed to the floor of a classroom.
MANUFACTURER: Hillis & Sons Ltd.
Isn't this absolutely a gem, even some gothic to the cast iron. This would be perfect on a boat also. these pieces were built to last !~
Thanks Phil, they sure were, it is a sturdy little set...probably more so when it was screwed to the floor. I love the Gothic shape too!
Just wanted to comment on the #3 mentioned in the text. From what I've learned about these antique school desk/chair sets was that they were assigned a number according to their size and school grades suited for. However, not every company making them used the same numbering system. The #4 size might be the smallest model for one company but be the largest model for another. I think these old school furnishings had a warmer atmosphere to them.
ridingtoy, That's very interesting about a numbering system for school desk and chair sizes, and it makes sense.
By the time I was in primary school, the school desk and chair had evolved into a single, adjustable unit, and the school janitor would come around at the beginning of the school year to adjust the heights of the desks and chairs.
No adjustment was available for the distance between the desk and chair that I can recall, possibly because it would have disturbed the alignment of the rows of desk/chair units in the classroom. The schools couldn't have that, so the students just had to live with it. };-)