Here’s something I still find amusing – actually, more than amusing, I find the thoughts it provokes and images it conjures, quite hilarious! This is from a few years ago:
I was looking at some old adverts for J.N. Foot and Son, who seemed to have had a remarkable array of different items for the Victorian gentleman or gentlewoman. My featured image shows their amazing and no doubt very useful drawer trunk, vital for those taking the waters in Baden Baden, or travelling to Nice to take the air along the Promenade des Anglais.
As well as trunks and baths, Mr Foot offered his Marlborough reclining chair, which would give ‘Rest for the Restless, Ease for the Nervous, Comfort for the Invalid, and Luxury for Everyone‘. Apparently, according to their advertisement:
‘is rigid and rocks at will, and can be adjusted to every position of comfort and can be adjusted to every position of rising by simply by the turn of a knob.’
I’m sorry but to a twenty-first century ear, these words are just hilarious… for many wrong reasons!The advert continues:
‘The back can be lowered to any position from upright to flat, and rises automatically when desired. The seat will tilt to any angle. The leg rest can be raised to set level or can be detached and used as a separate foot-stool or ottoman. An adjustable reading desk and table when required. Springs all over.’
If you were interested you could send for a free catalogue. As well as the Marlborough, there was also the Burlington chair available from Foot and Son. The advertisement for this featured a most sinister man reclining in ‘an ideal Easy Chair‘. he looked like some sort of vampire in desperate need for blood…
To see this world-weary English Dracula, here is the link:
https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/File:Burlington-foot-1910.jpg
Lois Elsden 
