AUGUST 2009
LUKE HUGHES AND COMPANY SUPPLIES FURNITURE TO HAMPTON COURT PALACE
Hampton Court Palace has, as part of the 500th anniversary of the accession of Henry VIII, recently upgraded its interpretation of the parts of the palace and the royal court. Luke Hughes & Company collaborated with the exhibition designer Karl Abeyasekera of studio associates and Della Cooper (Creative and Design Manager at the Historic Royal Palaces) on the furniture and AV display in the re-created Council Chamber, and some intriguing trestle tables - both for the body of the Great Hall and the dais on which Henry and his various queens must have sat. The tables had to express some of the Tudor feel but the light-weight, quick release table tops had to be designed for rapid removal by a single usher 'in a hurry' and stacked into mobile trolleys, to be wheeled away to be stored. The designs of the furniture derived from some of the designs found on board Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose. Luke Hughes had, as a student in the 1970s, been involved with the underwater excavations of the Mary Rose prior to it being lifted from the seabed.
Images :
1 Visitors seated in the AV theatre
2 Bespoke oak chairs
3 Solid oak trestle tables
4 Luke Hughes on the Mary Rose dive
5 From the 'Anthony Roll' the only contemporary picture of the Mary Rose
6 Medieval shipwright's tools recovered from the Mary Rose© Luke Hughes & Company August 2009
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