The chair won by Ioan Arfon (John Owen Griffith) at Bethesda in 1865 was based on the style of a fashionable shell-back hall chair. Made of oak with carved edging incorporating a simplified Prince of Wales' feathers at the top. The brass plaque on the back of this chair commemorated the event - a common addition to bardic chairs.
The 1860s was a period of growth in regional eisteddfodau and the Cymmrodorion supported the National Eisteddfod Society. It was around this time too that chairs were awarded and kept by the winning poets.
