King Charles’ Coronation chair restoration reveals hidden detail from a 700-year past

The Coronation chair on which King Henry VIII, King Charles I, Queen Victoria and the late Queen Elizabeth II were all crowned on the golden throne, is around 700 years old.

The restoration of the antique chair ahead of the monarch’s coronation revealed new details of its construction.

Krista Blessley, Westminster Abbey’s paintings conservator, is currently tasked with cleaning and refurbishing the historic chair. She believes she has found a previously overlooked part of a figure, via Sky News.

Blessley shared that she was surprised to find the detail, “I think they are previously undiscovered toes in the punch-work gilding on the back of the chair. So, there are areas of drapery where you can tell there would have been a figure.”

She continued, “It might be they are figures of kings or it might be a figure of a saint because so much is lost we can't really tell at the moment but I'll do some further investigation.”

Expressing her ‘privilege’ working on the chair, she said, “It’s so important to our country’s history and in the history of the monarchy, and it’s really unique as a conservator to work on something that’s part of a working collection and still used for the original function it was made for.”

According to Express UK, the chair is constructed from oak, decorated with coloured glass, gilded with gold leaf and painted by Master Walter, the King’s Master Painter.

The back of it once featured a painted king, either Edward the Confessor or Edward I, with his feet resting on an ornately carved lion.

King Charles will be crowned on the seat on May 6th, 2023, which is steeped in history and bears the scars of centuries of misuse, famously covered in graffiti carved by schoolboys and visitors in the 18th and 19th centuries who left their initials or name.