Chair linked to Ann Boleyn on display at Hever Castle

A 16th century chair that may have been made for Anne Boleyn when she was lady-in-waiting to Queen Claude of France is going on public display for the first time at Hever Castle where Anne lived as a child.

The chair was made in the Loire Valley, a center of Late Gothic French Renaissance furniture and art, between 1510 and 1520 when Anne Boleyn was at the French court. It was spotted by Paul Fitzsimmons of Devon-based Marhamchurch Antiques at an auction in New York in 2022. Fitzsimmons is a Tudor and English oak furniture expert who in 2019 identified a gilded wood falcon as a heraldic badge of Anne Boleyn’s removed from Hampton Court Palace after her execution.

The distinctive linenfold carving on the back of the chair is what caught his eye. The walnut backpanel features two nude putti holding a shield with the initials AB tied together by a knotted, tasseled rope known as a cordelière. The putti stand on the tails of dolphins that curve away from each other symmetrically. Their tails are banded together and a Tudor rose rises from the meeting point. The bloom’s placement is significant as the flower is in the center of the seat back where the sitter’s heart would be. Above the shield are “listener” and “talker” figures, motifs found on French ceremonial seats symbolizing the exchange and witnessing of important words.

These bas-reliefs are rife with symbolism. Dolphins are symbols of the French throne (“Dauphin,” the title for heir to the throne, is the French word for dolphin). The binding of the dolphin tails and the Tudor rose suggests a marriage bond between English and French throne. The AB monogram of Anne Boleyn entwined with a cordelière, symbol of spiritual devotion beloved by Queen Claude of France and her redoubtable mother twice Queen of France, Anne of Brittany, convey her position as a link between the two courts, probably specifically for her role as interpreter at the lavish banquet held at the fortress of the Bastille on December 22, 1518, celebrating the Treaty of Eternal Peace between France, England, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Papal States sealed by the betrothal of the two-year-old Princess Mary Tudor to the 10-month-old Dauphin, Francis.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg on the chair’s background. Fitzsimmons engaged Philadelphia-based historian Sandra Vasoli to investigate the chair’s symbolism. Read her fascinating, meticulous initial research on her website and follow her social media accounts for future updates.

Capturing a Queen: The Image of Anne Boleyn exhibit runs at Hever Castle through January 2, 2027. The chair will be on display alongside the gilded falcon, another of Anne’s heraldic emblems — a carved wooden leopard’s head — painted portraits and ceremonial objects from her reign as Queen.

* This article was originally published here