Frederick Duckloe and his sister Barbara Duckloe Townsend's great-great-grandfather was a wheelwright in New Hope, making Windsor chairs in the 1850s, and the family has been inthe business ever since. These beautiful chairs are each custom-built with such authenticity that they have been commissioned for display by the Smithsonian Museum. Frederick told us more about this long-standing American operation and how the traditional style has evolved.
What's the story behind this timeless design?
The Windsor chair was originally designed in England. It supposedly came to be called the Windsor because the king at the time was riding in the countryside one day when the weather turned bad. He came into a local cottage, sat in a comfortable chair next to the fire, dried out, warmed up and inquired about getting some chairs like the one he was sitting in for the Windsor Castle. Originally, they were a simple kind of furniture, compared with Queen Anneor Chippendale, made for taverns or kitchens.When the English brought them to America, the chairs evolved because they'd bring less formality to the design when repairing them.
Who actually makes the chairs?
All our craftsmen are guys I hired who apprenticed with the more senior people in the factory, hand-building our chairs out of high-quality hardwood. They've all been with us 35 or 40 years now. The shortest time a craftsman has been with us is 30 years.
How do you help shoppers navigate your showroom?
We let them wander around on their own and check back with them every once in a while to answer any questions they might have. I don't like salespeople hovering.
You offer a lot more than your beautiful handmade chairs—what are your other best-selling items?
Mostly everything! We have everything from upholstery, sofas, chairs, bedrooms, rugs—we have everything. What we sell the most of are the Windsor chairs in over a hundred different patterns, but we have tables, hutches, dressers, in traditional and contemporary styles, all handpicked for quality.
What services or products might customers be surprised to find you offer?
We sell one or two furniture kits a year, and my sister Barbara and our other salesperson Deanna offer interior design. They have a great sense for putting together a room with Windsor furniture in it to [its] best advantage.
How has the online component of your shop impacted business?
That's been good. We've gotten a lot of contract jobs, for 25, 50, even 100 chairs at a time. The last one was for a golf club out in Chicago. In the Lehigh Valley, we did Victaulic last year, or two years ago. We did their guesthouse 30-some years ago, and when they added on to it by a factor of like ten, the new owners liked what they saw in the old guesthouse and wanted it to match. These pieces don't go out of style.
Can you help someone with an antique Windsor chair that just needs restoration?
We stay away from other manufacturers' chairs, but we're glad to restore what we made. Since the ‘50s, our seal [has been] on the bottom of every chair. The really old ones wouldn't have it, but I can just tell if it's ours. Send a picture through email, if you're not sure, and I'll tell you.
What are some challenges to running a furniture business?
For American-made furniture, the challenge is that a lot is imported from China. They're dominating the low end, but ours is high-end furniture. Our customers want to have a handmade, quality American chair for a long time.
513 Delaware Ave., Portland | 570.897.6172 | duckloe.com
