The Anne Boleyn Chair

The Beginning

In 2022, antiques dealer Paul Fitzsimmons, a renowned specialist in rare Tudor-era artifacts, discovered an extraordinary early 16th-century chair. It is believed that the chair was made for young Anne Boleyn while she served at the French royal court between 1514 and 1521.

The unforgettable saga of Anne Boleyn—an English woman raised in French high society who returned home, attracted a powerful king who moved heaven and earth to marry her, made her Queen, and had her executed mere years later—is compelling, even today.

Research on the chair illuminates the obscure yet significant early years of Henry VIII's second wife, during which she served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Claude of France from 1515 to 1521. Its iconography provides an enticing insight into the maturing Anne Boleyn; perhaps more prescient, an impression of the core values held by the future Queen of England.

Paul Fitzsimmons established Marhamchurch Antiques in 1991; he is widely recognized as one of the UK’s leading specialists in early oak furniture and works of art, with a particular focus on the Tudor and early Stuart periods. With a lifelong passion for the history and material culture of the 16th century, Fitzsimmons combines deep research with connoisseurship to uncover and document rare pieces. Most recently, he found and restored an English oak-carved falcon badge, a remarkable and hence important representative symbol in the heraldry of Queen Anne Boleyn. The wooden carving, still possessing its 16th-century gold leaf and silver pigment, is widely believed to have been part of the decorations at Hampton Court Palace, a favored residence of King Henry VIII and Queen Anne Boleyn.

Descriptions and interpretations of the symbols featured on the chair will be published in a series. Each motif will be described, accompanied by photos and a discussion of its meaning.

What becomes eminently clear when viewing this particular chair, with its distinctive and unusual bas-relief carvings, is that it intends to present a message or a story. Unlike many other chairs of this style and era, whose carvings are purely decorative, these images make an unmistakable statement about the chair's purpose. It is therefore up to the viewer to read the information offered and determine what it may reveal about the life versus the legend of Anne Boleyn.

The Rose and the Dolphin

The chair's construction features a carved walnut backpanel, a wood preferred by early French furniture makers. The remainder of the structure is oak and measures 32 1/2” wide, 76 1/2” high, and 19 3/4” deep. Style and finish indicate sourcing from the Loire Valley region of France. It is of the early Renaissance cathedra type, with an exceptionally arresting sculpted panel.

The most conspicuous element on the pictorial includes two naked putti-like figures, incised in the hybrid Late Gothic–Renaissance manner, which flank and hold a shield inscribed with the initials Ab. A knotted cord, or more accurately a cordeliére, entwines the monogram. Beneath the figures, a pair of dolphins rise symmetrically; from their bound tails springs a precisely rendered English Tudor rose. It is a Tudor rose articulated as described in heraldic terms: 'a Tudor rose, slipped and leaved.' Its position on the backrest is significant: it lies directly behind the sitter's heart. The rose's stem is clasped by the splayed tails of the two dolphins. Dauphin, the French word for dolphin, is the historical title for the heir to the French throne. Binding the stem and tails is a band that may represent a wedding band. In this case, the symbolic dolphins securing a newly sprung English rose can mean little else than the union of the French throne with the English; a merger of two dynasties.