Amplifon acoustic chair

ID: A large golden armchair with two decorative lions' heads with open mouths at the end of each armrest. “When I first saw this chair I felt glad that I had my hearing aids and thought it was so ugly. It would be most restrictive if that chair was my hearing equipment!” Kathie Hare-Cockburn, Liverpool Deaf Community group This special armchair is a recreation of an acoustic chair made in 1819 for King John VI of Portugal and Brazil, who was hard of hearing. Visitors who wanted to speak to the King knelt down and talked into the lions’ mouths. The amplified sound was then directed to the King’s ear piece which was fixed to the end of a tube similar to the one you can see on the back of this chair. This chair sat proudly in the window of the Liverpool Hearing Centre, Bold Street for many years until it was kindly donated to the Museum of Liverpool in 2017. Do you remember it?