Very old bible chair belonged to John Knox 1500s !!

theking · May 15, 2011

Very old bible chair belonged to John Knox 1500's !!

Hello, i was recently turned on to this forum by a friend and i thought maybe someone could help me find a way to get this chair appraised. It was passed down to me from my family originally bought by my great grandmother from an auction in England. I still have the receipt from the auction. It says it was owned by a man named John Knox who was a Scottish clergyman and a leader of the Protestant Reformation who brought reformation to the church in Scotland. This is a link to the wiki about him http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Knox . I believe this chair is from the 1500's and is in pretty good condition. I've never dealt with antiques before but i am really interested in what everyone thinks about this cool piece i have.

diggummup · May 15, 2011

Re: Very old bible chair belonged to John Knox 1500's !!

First and foremost... Welcome to the Treasurenet forum. I love the chair, unfortunately I cannot give a value to it. I think it needs to be appraised by a professional. It's hard to see the detail of the carving on the chair back, is that a Wyvern, a Cockatrice, or a Fish-tailed Griffin? Although similar it's not an exact match to the knox family crest (see pic below) Perhaps some more photos of different angles, the underside and close-ups for those "in the know"? How long has this piece been in your family? It is a beautiful piece.
Do you know the wood type? Is it Oak?

PS- If this chair actually belonged to John Knox (and it can be verified) then you have a National Treasure as far as i'm concerned. It could/would be worth tens of thousands. Even a chair of that era would still be worth several thousand. The one in the background looks pretty old too.

I would advise you to contact these people here for the best appraisal of value-

Leigh Keno Auctions
127 East 69th Street
New York, NY 10021
Phone: (212)734-2381
Fax: (212)734-0707
leigh@kenoauctions.com

http://www.leighkeno.com/inquiriesauction.cfm

Please keep me advised if you could. I am very interested to know the outcome of this.

diggummup · May 16, 2011

Re: Very old bible chair belonged to John Knox 1500's !!

I reposted this here-http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,400688.0.html maybe you'll get some more hits on it. :thumbsup:

Hope you don't mind.

theking · May 17, 2011

Re: Very old bible chair belonged to John Knox 1500's !!

WOW! Thanks so much, that was some fast great info! :headbang:

Im having my mother email more photos and ill post them up later today. Thanks for sharing the topic, any insight i can get is very exciting to me. The chair in the background I don't have as much information about. It is also very old a slightly darker wood and a beautiful almost pineapple like crest in the middle. The Knox chair was bought from an auction in the early 1900's by my great grandmother in London and there is some sort of shipping receipt and a bill of sale from the auction that says something identifying that it was believed to be his chair. It was pretty expensive back then i think like 1,000 dollars maybe. My mother has the paperwork i will try to get her to take a picture of that as well. I'm not sure of the wood type maybe it says on the documents. It also has a drawer on one side of the seat of the chair I'm guessing to place the bible. I will be calling those numbers you gave me very soon and i will definitely keep you up to date with what people are saying about it. Thanks again! - Thomas