Ercol Windsor chairs, can they be dismantled?

We have a few old ercol chairs, specifically Windsor 334, not 203 although I suspect the answer is generic to all.

I can see various screws on the base and two possible screw covers on the arms.

Can the chair be dismantled? We live in an old cottage and am struggling to get it around a corner with two foot thick walls.

Looking at a factory video for a slightly different model I suspect the answer is ‘no’

long shot, but my FiL comes from a long line of High Wycombe chair makers and had something to do with Ercol at some point in his career.

If the answer gets beyond a Grandpa Simpson anecdote I’ll let you know…….

Thanks @rhinofive (interesting name)

Not seen that video of a 914 being made before.  I have a pair of the 913 shorter backed Springtime chairs amongst an awful lot of other Ercol. The legs are just glued into the base so you might be able to just tap them out so your are left with the seat, back and arms/supports.  I would ask one of the specialist restorers such as Sunday’s Child or Thomas Norris Restorations, or via the “Everything Ercol – Buy Sell & Learn Group” on facebook.

I’d say not, or at least not without difficulty.

You can use steam to loosen glue joints, which basically heats up the joint, which can be knocked apart, but even once its in bits, it cannot simply be glued back together without removing all the old glue.

Plus on reassembly, you would need to clamp it up and its more than likely in the factory, they’d have used jigs and fixtures to hold the misshapen and curved components while the glue goes off. Recreating all that would be difficult at best, unless you’re experienced in that type of thing, and have the equipment, timber etc.

All in all you might end up with a pile of components, and what was once a usable chair, is now a pile of scrap wood.

Given the price of some Ercol chairs in the market(£300+ for that type) i would just leave it where it is.

Unless of course it needs to go, in which case have you an axe ?

Dyna -Ti ⤴️ has it exactly.

The restorers will know. The other thing is the arms are screwed on in two places (and insert glued at the bottom). The screw into the back rest is under a blanking plug which is glued in then smoothed off so I think will be a pain to remove, replace and refinish properly.

A Jubilee range armchair has a lower profile so might fit?

On reassembly, you would need to clamp it up and its more than likely in the factory, they’d have used jigs and fixtures to hold the misshapen and curved components while the glue goes off.

Give rishi a call, he might lend you his Windsor framework

“not made to be disassembled”, so as above

ours Ercols are mostly glued and “wedged” like this

Cheers all.

I agree, far too much hassle. We do have some low slung 203s as well, not as comfy but they do fit.

Will see if we can keep the others elsewhere as I don’t want to loose them.