Coronation Chair

The Coronation Chair, known historically as St Edward's Chair or King Edward's Chair, is an ancient wooden throne on which the British monarch sits when he or she is invested with regalia and crowned at the coronation. It was commissioned in 1296 by King Edward I to contain the coronation stone of Scotland – known as the Stone of Scone – which had been captured from the Scots who kept it at Scone Abbey. The chair was named after Edward the Confessor, and was previously kept in his shrine at Westminster Abbey.

The high-backed, Gothic-style armchair was carved from oak at some point between the summer of 1297 and March 1300 by the carpenter Walter of Durham. At first, the king ordered for the chair to be made of bronze, but he changed his mind and decided it should be made of timber. The chair is the oldest dated piece of English furniture made by a known artist. Since the 14th century, all crowned English and British monarchs have been seated in this chair at the moment of coronation, with the exception of Queen Mary II, who was crowned on a copy of the chair. Monarchs used to sit on the Stone of Scone itself until a wooden platform was added in the 17th century.

Gilded lions added in the 16th century form the legs to the chair; they were all replaced in 1727. One of the four lions was given a new head for George IV's coronation in 1821. The chair itself was originally gilded, painted and inlaid with glass mosaics, traces of which can still be seen upon close inspection of the chair, especially on the back where outlines of foliage, birds and animals have managed to survive. A lost image of a king, maybe Edward the Confessor or Edward I, with his feet resting on a lion was also painted on the back. Today, its appearance is of aged and brittle wood.

In the 18th century, tourists could sit on the chair for a small payment to one of the vergers. Early tourists and choirboys of the abbey carved their initials and other graffiti into the chair, and the corner posts have been acutely damaged by souvenir hunters. Sir Gilbert Scott, the Gothic revival architect and antiquary, described the chair as "a magnificent piece of decoration, but sadly mutilated".

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Wikipedia