Stool - Mini Elm Wood (Round Top)

About the Stool - Mini Elm Wood (Round Top)

The round-top version is the older of the two common patterns and the harder to find in good condition, because a circular seat wastes more of the plank and was therefore made less often. The top is cut from a single slab of elm, the edge left slightly proud of true so you can still feel where the saw came through, and three legs are driven up into it at a splay that makes the stool almost impossible to tip.

Look at the top face and you will see the working history: a slight dish worn into the centre, darker at the edges where hands have gripped it, and the occasional scar from whatever was set down on it. On the underside the tool marks are untouched, which is the quickest way to tell an old stool from a reproduction with an aged finish.

Round tops sit better than square ones in tight corners and under low windows, and a pair at slightly different heights makes a better plant group than any single stand. Keep them out of direct heat, wax once or twice a year, and treat the wedges as the only serviceable part. If one is missing, cut a new one in oak and drive it home dry.

Round-top stools come in irregularly and we rarely have more than a couple at once. If you want a pair, leave your name — we would rather match two properly over a few weeks than send you one round and one square and call it a set. Collection is welcome if you are local, and the show schedule lists where the stock travels.

Round tops attract more repairs than square ones, because a circular seat has short grain at four points around the edge and those points chip. A neat old repair — a let-in patch, a copper rivet, a seat re-glued along an original crack — is not a fault and we price accordingly. What we will not sell is a stool that has been filled and stained to hide the repair, since that tells you nothing about what has actually been done to the piece.