Blog — Jimmy Possum RSS

The Legend of the Jimmy Possum Chair – Mike Epworth   Over a century ago in rural Tasmania, there appeared a new design of vernacular chair. Seeming at first glance to draw from Irish or Windsor traditions, the chair utilized a novel construction in which the legs and outer back spindles ran continuously through the seat and arms, a configuration that tightened and strengthened every joint when sat upon.   But who made these chairs? Tales told of a man who lived outside town in a hollow tree, building chairs with simple tools and selling or trading them to area farmers and inns, but today there survive no concrete records of this man’s existence. He was known as Jimmy Possum.