Robert Foubister and his daughter Lizzie, Orkney ca. 1920

Robert Foubister and his daughter Lizzie, Orkney ca. 1920

Wood

This is a photograph of Robert Foubister, a crofter, and his daughter making a straw backed Orkney Chair. They are pictured preparing oat straw into coils that are then stitched into the wooden frame. Foubister appears frequently in the D. M. Kirkness Orkney Chair order book for the 1890s alongside other chair backers including John Coupland of Kirkwall. A typical entry for 1891 was for two chairs, one mid sized and one small, both backed by Foubister, who was paid 5s and 3s6d respectively, as ordered by Miss Spead ‘while on a visit at Berstane House’, with the chairs and bills sent to Wm H. Longbottom, Cavendish Road, East the Park, Nottingham, who Miss Spead was about to marry. Miss Maud Balfour of Berstane House was one of the first to place an order with Kirkness. Foubister is a common name in Orkney. A fellow craftsman ca.1860 was Thomas Foubister, a taxidermist in Kirkwall, but most of that name were crofters and fishermen.

Few trees grow on Orkney and the chair evolved for local home industry using drift wood and locally-grown straw. By the time this photograph was taken, the commercially made Orkney chair was made using imported wood, mostly shipped from Aberdeen.

This portrait is the subject of a commercial postcard, which was published in the Kent’s Series and aimed at the tourist market. It is unusual for this genre of images that we know the names of the sitters, who are photographed in an artist’s studio, probably in Kirkwall, and not their usual place of work on a croft about six miles away. The photographer was Tom Kent, locally born in 1863 but trained in America. He contributed to magazines such as Country Life and sold postcard images of Orkney views and traditional life.

Orkney Islands Council

Orkney Museum