Victorian rosewood parlour chair

BBC Radio Suffolk producer Sally Burch has chosen a piece of family furniture. The objects we fill our homes with, which we use everyday, give a snap-shot of our lives. Furniture these days is far more temporary and disposable, and of course, cheaper to make and import.

It also illustrates the changes to the homes we live in; how many children would know what a parlour is?

"This is an antique chair that was handed down to me after my grandmother died. It was in quite bad condition but my mum had it restored for me. The cane seat was a replacement for the upholstered one it had, as the restorer said it would have originally been made out of that material. As far as I can find out it may date from 1830-1850 and is probably made out of rosewood. It may have been part of a set of six dining chairs or possibly part of a parlour suite. These days it has pride of place in our bedroom where it is out of harm's way. It's not strong enough to take a person of heavy proportions! The chair is very dear to me and is one of two pieces that were left to me. I shall, in turn, hand them down the generations to create our own little piece of family history."