Prince of Wales Investiture Chair, 1969

A Prince of Wales Investiture Chair, 1969

design by the Rt Hon. the Earl of Snowdon, Carl Toms and John Pound, the back with indented Prince of Wales's feathers in gilt, the seat upholstered in red Welsh Tweed, 55cm wide, 78cm high, 53cm deep, with the original Prince of Wales Investiture cardboard box from the Ministry of Works.

A rare chance to snap up an Investiture chair in almost mint condition- unused, and in the original box, as ordered directly from the Ministry of Works in 1969. Two previous owners. The chair comes in two sections, which fit away neatly inside the cardboard box. Original imperial thread screws included.

Provenance: Purchased directly from the Investiture by Mrs S. M. Bottomley, Norfolk.

Stock Reference: LH 1826

Reference: Luke Honey: Game of Thrones

Otherwise known as "The Red Chair", this chair was designed by Antony Armstrong-Jones (The Earl of Snowdon), the stage designer Carl Toms (1927-1999), and John Pound, principle design officer with the Supplies Division of the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works.

The chair was designed specifically for the four thousand guests invited to the Prince of Wales's Investiture at the Medieval Caernarfon Castle in July 1969. Millions of television viewers watched the twenty year old Prince receive his insignia from The Queen, conferring on him his new title as the twenty first Prince of Wales. Lord Snowdon, the Prince's uncle and Constable of the castle, was commissioned (along with Carl Toms and John Pound) to design the setting and furniture of the investiture. The resulting ceremony successfully reflected the supposed "antiquity" of the event, but with a simplified modernist twist- very much in tune with Sixties thinking: the investiture taking place under a huge Perspex canopy, a modern take on the hangings which might have been found, say, at a Medieval tournament.