When King Charles III is coronated on May 6, he’ll do so from a very historic point. The coronation chair, which was commissioned by King Edward I and finished around 1300, has served as the seat for 38 monarchs as they were crowned and is thought to be one of the oldest pieces of British furniture still in use. Made of gilded oak, it’s been painstakingly preserved over centuries and was given a thorough restoration ahead of King Charles III’s crowning. 

“It is one of the oldest surviving artifacts associated with coronations for which we have a complete provenance,” Dr. R. M. Morris, honorary senior research associate at the Constitution Unit of University College London tells AD. Because a great number of coronation items were lost during the interregnum that lasted from 1649 to 1660, little, except for the chair and a spoon used in the ceremony, remains. “It is a remarkable survival and a more than 700-years-old link with an unimaginably remote past, and yet still also a witness to the wonderful fact of the long continuity of our society.”

Late last year, a restoration of the chair, led by Westminster Abbey conservator Krista Blessley, began with the aim of cleaning it and preserving the gilding where it had flaked. The six-foot-nine-tall chair, which resides in Westminster Abbey’s St. George’s Chapel when it’s not in use, was originally designed to hold the Stone of Scone, a Scottish symbol of monarchy that King Edward I captured and brought back to England. It was enclosed in a wood platform that served as the seat of the chair. While the stone was given back to Scotland in 1996, it will be sent from Edinburgh Castle to Westminster Abbey for the coronation. 

The chair features ornate detailing of plants, birds, and other animals. On the back, a king (which is believed to have been Edward I or Edward the Confessor) is depicted. Westminster Abbey curator Susan Jenkins believes the chair’s decoration is its greatest virtue. “You need to get up close to the chair to see the level of detailed decoration that still survives on it. The chair has what is called punchwork and stenciling in the gilding, which originally completely covered it,” she tells AD. “The gilding still shows signs of flowers and birds in delicate markings on the inner and outer sides. It also had colored glass that would have sparkled in the candlelight.” 

Historians see incredible detail in the chair that brings to life the complex history of the royal family. Much would be very easy to miss at first glance. “I think relatively little is known about the chair—about its age and its continual use. Visitors probably don’t realize that a copy of it was made for the coronation of Queen Mary II (Stuart) in 1689, so that she could be crowned alongside her husband, King William III,” Jenkins shares. The queen had a stronger claim to the English throne than Dutch-born William, but he was crowned in the 14th-century chair, and she was crowned in one that was made for her coronation.

Every element of the chair’s design highlights the living history of British royalty and the sanctity with which it is seen. “During the coronation service, the chair is positioned on the Cosmati pavement of the sacrarium and it is the closest seat to the high altar, with its back towards the rest of the congregation,” Jenkins says. “The use of a chair that was commissioned by a king of England over 700 years ago helps to emphasize the ancient and traditional nature of the coronation service and the reverence owed to the monarch.”