Jimmy Possum: the enigmatic artisan
The Jimmy Possum chair tradition’s eponym was a mysterious late 19th century Tasmanian. Local stories have him living and working out of a hollowed tree in summer and staying in farm sheds around the Deloraine district during winter, swapping his chairs for rations or a dry roof over his head. His rustic genius lay in a design innovation that referenced the Welsh stick and Irish hedge chairs. These two traditional designs were characterised by side back-rungs that intersected the arms. Possum took this configuration one step further and extended his chairs’ legs through the seat to be housed in the arms. The result was a system that strengthened as someone sat in it.
Like the tradition’s Celtic antecedents, a Jimmy Possum chair possesses a laconic aesthetic –
