Antique 17th-18th Century Walnut Chair  - William and Mary Period Walnut Armchair - A Queen Anne Period Country Walnut Chair - George II Period Mahogany Chair Furniture

Late 17th century walnut chair with velvet upholstery. Shaped stretchers and carved bulbs on legs.
Quality of execution of legs and stretchers
Late 17th century - William and Mary period - Walnut armchair. Curved and moulded stretchers. Note the bulb turning and ‘bun’ feet - to be seen on other pieces of the period such as side tables and chest stands. The wool or hair upholstery is covered with velvet with bullion braiding. Note also the curvature of the arms to balance the stretchers.
Chairs of this period tend to be uncommon and wide variations occur depending on condition and quality.
William and Mary period walnut chair with cane back. A marked development in design from the previous example. The high cane back and square section joining of the back legs has been retained but the new form of leg - the cabriole - has appeared, introduced to England byforeign workmen. The cabrioles in this example finish in hoof or pied-de-biche feet. This is an early form of Continental influence. The transition between the high backed cane chairs of the 17th century and the finely carved cabrioles of the 18th century is to be seen. The Victorians were fond of making hall chairs of this type but usually lost proportion in legs and stretchers.
Queen Anne period walnut chair of early design. The now famous splat shape is evident but the high back is retained, although a curve in the rake of the back has emerged - the spoon back. There is a shaped and moulded stretcher but in this case the cabriole legs terminate in simple pad feet. The height of the back and the square section of the back legs are retained from the previous century. An interesting feature peculiar to Q. A. workmanship is the slightly raised planed moulding at the bottom of the frame just under the seat, rather like cockbeading. cabriole-leg side tables and chest stands of the period sometimes exhibit the same feature.
A superb walnut armchair of about 1710 raised on high quality cabriole legs decorated on the knee with criss cross carving and small tassels, the ends terminating in ball and claw feet. The back is of unusual shape but the solid splat of walnut veneered on oak is found on less good examples. The shepherd’s crook arms are well proportioned. The thick rim round the drop-in seat is typical of the period, as is the shell motif repeated on the cresting rail. A side view would show the pronounced rake of this top quality chair.
Cabrioles  Back
A Queen Anne period country walnut chair which was originally rush-seated. The front legs are cabrioles and the turned stretchers between the legs have square joints. The presence of stretchers tends to distract somewhat from the line of the cabrioles and is generally assumed to be a feature of the chairs of the earlier part of the period. The back legs and uprights are also turned, a feature frequently found on chairs of this period. The plain back splat is curved and the rush seatwas of the drop-in type. The cabriole legs end in pad feet and the design and execution of the chair is of good quality for country furniture. Instead of fitting shoulder pieces at the sides of the cabriole knees, the flat facets are covered with round knobs, glued on.
Quality of cabriole and back  Note the cabrioles on this example are slightly bandy and the knee (top) is too heavy for the foot.
Queen Anne country chair, with back splat of shape typically associated with the period. Drop-in seat; turned stretchers and back uprights. Cabriole legs of gentler curve, ending in small pad feet. Generally to be found in either walnut - now more scarce - or oak. Occasional examples in elm.
Original stretchers.  Stretchers may be found to have been replaced, but value not greatly affected. Beware however of replacement feet, legs or top rail which detract.
Walnut Queen Anne period corner chair with inlaid diamond pattern in boxwood. Turned stretchers and uprights. Typically shaped splats in figured walnut. Drop-in seat. Cabriole legs ending in pad feet; note the shell motif carved on the front cabriole, a factor of quality. This chair is possibly of country origin.
Quality of execution, i.e. proportion, grace of cabrioles, shell motifs etc.
Queen Anne walnut country chair, with cabriole legs at front and back. Fully upholstered seat. The plain back splat curved to meet shaped top rail. Note the absence of stretchers between the legs, generally supposed to be a later improvement of the period.
Quality and originality of cabriole legs
A George II period mahogany chair. Note that although a fine quality Cuban mahogany has been used, the style is one which would normally be associated withwalnut; but there are extra refinements. The vase shaped splat has small scrolls and a shell work top. The shaped uprights to the back are topped with eagle heads and the cabriole legs have leaf patterns carved on the knees.
Country chair of pre-Chippendale design c. 1745-55. The transition of the back splat from the solid Queen Anne shape to pierced Chippendale design is evident, as is the squarer shaping of the top rail. The square legs - chamfered on the inside - and rectangular section stretchers are also typical and generally associated with ‘Chippendale’ country types. The rush drop-in seat is of a type from country chairs of an earlier period. These chairs are generally to be found in oak or elm, with scarcer walnut examples.
Oak and Elm, Walnut.

CHAIRS About 1770-1815
Designers converging on Rome in 1750s absorb ideas of classical Roman decoration and begin to apply them in 1760s to seat furniture with square, rectangular or oval backs; straight legs in place of cabriole. Neo-classical style international by 1770, identified with reigns of Louis XVI in France, Friedrich Wilhelm 11 in Prussia, Joseph 11 in Austria, Catherine II in Russia, Maria I in Portugal, Charles IV Russian steel chair showing sheraton on influence.
in Spain and George III in Britain. In spite of Italian source, English and French interpretations most influential.
In 1780s, the painter David commissions chair-maker Jacob to produce chairs with sabre legs and wide top rails, and couches with scroll ends on turned feet derived from paintings of Greek originals — basis of Directoire style (1790-1800), Empire (1800-15). Notable makers: Sen and the Jacob family of Paris.
Directoire chair with lyre back, in the manner 0f Jacob and Sen, about 1800.
Mainly as in rococo period until 1780s, but timber used more economically — one reason advanced for abandoning cabriole leg being waste of wood in shaping. In 1780s, mahogany introduced by Jacob and ‘Etruscan’ (Greek) style which becomes international Empire style, identified with Napoleon I.
Return to discipline, after excesses of baroque and rococo, makes for sounder construction, especially in chairs with angular backs: but oval backs, composed of four segments joined by mortise-and-tenon, still difficult to make.
Etruscan style introduces innovations —wide top rail to chairs sometimes set against, rather than between, uprights. Stools have
Directoire chair with broad top rail, sabre legs and Greek key decoration, based on a klismos chair.
Above, Russian mahogany bergre with ormolu mounts, about 1810.
acanthus, on frames; backs sometimes surmounted by a trophy of arms or musical instruments within a wreath.
Neo-classical, second phase (Etruscan): Fretted, lyre-shaped splats from 1780s. Egyptian sphinxes, carved or cast in metal, on Empire armchairs, some of which have rounded backs and arms carved as crouching lions.
Early-19thC X-frame stool based on ancient Roman model, probably Austrian.
curved X-supports. Guilds disbanded following French Revolution, but standards remain high in cities. In country districts, unaffected by guilds, traditional methods followed.
Many provincial chairs have ‘ladded’ (’slat’) backs, with shaped rungs or rails tenoned into rounded uprights, legs socketed into seat frames (see also NEW WORLD, SLAT-BACK CHAIRS).
Neo-classical, first phase (Louis XVI): Legs square-tapered or turned and tapered, often fluted. Delicate, restrained carving of beads,
Louis XVI: Woodwork left natural, painted or gilded. Seats caned, or webbed and padded before being upholstered, but not sprung.
Etruscan/Empire: Mahogany polished, beech stained black and parcel-gilt.
VALUES
Louis XVI and Empire chairs and settees survive in sufficiently large quantities for them to be bought at sensible prices, unless in the category described as ‘important’.
JACOB
Georges Jacob and his sons, leading chair-makers of the Louis XVI, Directoire and Empire periods, very often carved a pair of marguerites on the frieze of a chair, above the front legs.

French Baroque, Rococo and Lous XV Chairs 1630-1770
Baroque, 1630-1715 (Louis XIII/XIV): Until about 1650, chair legs are turned to baluster or trumpet shapes, then spirals, followed from about 1670-1700 by scrolled legs joined by matching front stretchers and accompanied by turned uprights to backs with high cresting rails.
Settees, either resembling three chairs ‘joined together or fully upholstered, are popular from 1660, as are day-beds and sleeping chairs with adjustable headrests. Winged armchairs appear about 1670, when Louis XIV version of baroque developed by Le Brun for Versailles, begins to affect design throughout Europe. Stools with upholstered seats (tabourets) play role in court protocol – folding pliants on X-supports reserved for duchesses.
In 1685, religious discrimination in France drives out many craftsmen and designers, in-
eluding Marot who settles in Holland and becomes noted especially for designs of grandiloquent seat furniture.
Rococo, 1715-70: Heavy, hook-like scrolled leg has gradually been smoothed into the elongated S-curve of the cabriole leg, which dominates the Regence and Louis XV periods cabriole leg terminates in various types of feet, e.g. scroll, hoof, in France, Italy; claw-and-ball in Holland, Portugal. Chair and settee backs lower. Notable chair-makers:
Migeon and Cresson of Paris; Nogaret of Lyon.
Italian gilded rococo settee, about 1750.
Rococo style often exaggerated in Italy, Spain and Scandinavia by use of boldly curved cabriole legs and asymmetrical cresting rails; in Russia, by exuberant carving on seat furniture designed for royal palaces by the Italian, Count Rastrelli. Portuguese chairs about 1750 have fretted splats and claw-andball feet in English style.
Mainly oak, walnut and beech for sophisticated fauteuil (chair with open arms), bergere (padded arms, cushioned seat), canape (settee); duchesse-brisee (daybed in form of bergere with removable extension).
Mid-17thC Spanish walnut armchair with baluster turnings.
Louis XIV carved and gilded tabomet.
German walnut fauteuil, about 1750,
A Louis XV rococo canape, about 1750-1760.
Frames usually exposed, seats and backs upholstered in velvet, tapestry, brocade, damask, needlework. Rattan, imported from the East, used from about 1660 for woven cane seats and back panels.
Ash, elm, pine, birch used for country chairs with wood or rush seats.
Baroque: Many high-backed, narrow-seated chairs have front legs socketed into flat seat frames; others mortised-and-tenoned.
Rococo: Most chairs totally devoid of straight lines; joining one curved section of frame to another entails masterly use of mortised joints.
Baroque: Bold turning, bobbin and baluster shapes. Spirals (’twists’) carved by hand until turners devise jigs for turning on lathe. Scroll legs shaped and decorated by carver.
Cresting rails carved with cherubs’ heads, vine leaves.
Rococo: Cabriole legs and curving frames shaped and decorated by carver, exploiting opposed C-scrolls, shells, flowers, moulded edges of frames.
Baroque: Silvered, gilded or left natural.
Water gilding more usual becuase it can be burnished or left matt; more expensive than oil gilding which cannot be burnished. Ground prepared with several coats of gesso (plaster mixed with size), coated with coloured mordant (blue, red or yellow) and, in case of water gilding, wetted before application of gold leaf over very small areas at a time. Cheap substitute for gilding is ‘Dutch gold’, using copper in place of gold leaf. Silvering uses same process as gilding, with silver leaf instead of gold.
French provincial childs chair.
Rococo: Left natural, gilded all over or painted, often with details in gold. Venetian seats brightly painted with flowers.
Louis XV seat furniture, especially if upholstered in original tapestry, much more expensive than 17thC baroque.
Frames of Louis XV seat furniture, as distinct from other types, e.g. tables, were very rarely veneered or mounted in ormolu, whereas 19thC pastiches
sometimes were.
Left, baroque leg socketed into flat -seat rail; right, mortise-and-tenon joint on a curved member.

CHAIRS: UPHOLSTERED
About 1720-1840
Queen Anne side-chair, about 17.30.
Surviving upholstered chairs made for drawing-room use date mostly from after 1720 and, although originally made in sets, are more often found today in pairs, or even singles.
Many resemble contemporary dining-chairs in the design of legs and stretchers and the general shape of arms, but have fully upholstered seats (sometimes with a show-wood rail), fully or partly upholstered backs and mostly open arms with padded rests. Some (particularly those with cabriole legs) will have shaped and carved rear legs - a sign of high quality.
Most common types:
Mid-18thC side-chair with fine pierced stretchers.
Side-chairs (without arms), about 1720-1770: Straight, flat, upholstered backs, often with slightly rounded corners. Occasionally serpentine top around 1750.
Spoon-back or ‘Compass-seated’ chairs, about 1720-1740: Shepherd’s crook arms, cabriole legs, waisted ’spoon’ backs.
Chippendale style, about 1750-1775: Low, square backs and broad, square seats. Either ‘French’ with undulating seat rails, scrolled arms, cabriole legs (the grandest are highly carved  and sometimes gilded  with separate ‘escutcheon’ back) or ‘Gainsborough’ with straight legs and stretchers, arm supports sweeping down from rest to front of seat. May have Gothic or chinoiserie carved detail.
Neo-classical Adam-type, about 17701800: Often highly carved and painted or gilded. Oval backs, arms usually sweeping down to meet turned and fluted or reeded legs; curved and shaped seats. Seat rails were also often reeded, interspersed with paterae and so on.
`French Hepplewhite’, about 1775 to 1800: Delicate version of French rococo armchairs, often with a shaped back separate from the seat.
Regency forms, about 1800-1830: French Empire type with continuous rounded backs
forming arms and sabre legs. Or, distinctive continuous U-shaped seat and arms with plain, low, rectangular back.
Walnut, mahogany; rosewood during Regency. Beech when painted or gilded (mostly from 1770 onwards) and for underframes.
Standard methods employed. See full details on p. 57-59.
Upholstery is unlikely to be original throughout. The number of empty tack holes in the frame may indicate the extent of former upholstery. Remember that correctly shaped padding and authentic reproductions of
textiles and trimmings of the right date will greatly enhance a chair’s appearance (and maybe increase its value). Perfectionists would advocate the use of traditional upholstery techniques and materials, too.
As for side-chairs, but often more elaborate and extensive carving.
Polish, paint, gilding.
Mostly in the lower half of four-figure sums, decreasing with younger age. The grandest, highly carved and gilded chairs with good provenance, are at a premium. Period upholstery  if in usable condition (particularly needlework and tapestry) -will add considerably to the value.
Left mahogany ‘Gainsborough, armchair, about 1760-1770.
Right, neo-classical gilded drawing-room chairs in the style of Robert Adam.
Armchair in ‘French Hepplewhite style.
The introduction of the coiled spring for upholstery in the late 1820s brought greater comfort and a more rounded appearance to padding. A great variety of upholstered furniture became available, often sold in suites comprising a sofa, or chaise longue, a pair of easy chairs (one gentleman’s, with arms; one lady’s, without) and six side-chairs.
The majority were in a curvaceous rococo style, with moulded show-wood frames, rounded and waisted ’spoon’ backs and short.
Armchair with continuous ous curves from  arm to foot,
scrolling cabriole legs. Arms, when present, formed as one continuous scroll with front leg, bulging over the knee and ending in ball-like ‘French’ scroll feet. Low seats; deep naturalistic carving on knees and centre of
top and front seat rails. Always on castors, sometimes of white or brown porcelain (a post-1850 feature). Distinctive convex curve evolved for slightly outward-splaying back legs.
Later spoon-backs (post 1870) may have straight, turned legs.
Occasionally a separate padded oval back supported on carved, inward-curving extensions of back legs.
Squared-up versions with straight, turned legs and arched backs appeared around 1860, becoming increasingly heavy with carving of classical rather naturalistic nature. Deep mouldings replaced by incised lines.
Variations abounded after 1880, their only common features being straighter contours.

CHAIRS: PRE-CHIPPENDALE - Antique chairs furniture of early 18th century - French walnut chair - Queen Anne period chairs - Chippendale chairs - antique mahogany chair - chairs in this transitional style
Antique chairs furniture of early 18th century belong a transitional phase, its most significant feature being the introduction of mahogany  hard, richly coloured and ideal for carving  following the destruction of the French walnut chair in the exceptionally hard winter of 1709. The grandest furniture of this time was made in the ponderous classical style of the architect William Kent; regular household furniture retained the simple, elegant lines of the Queen Anne period chairs, and combined them with some of the ‘new features’ now thought of as ‘Chippendale’.
Solid and substantial early 18th century chairs with broad seats and squatter and broader cabrioles than before, typically with claw-and-ball, sometimes ‘hairy paw’ feet. Winged serpentine rail characteristic of Chippendale chairs now started to appear but it was less elegant, with protruding, scrolling corners, or shoulders were rounded, dipping sharply into centre of crest rail. Splats were pierced, often ribbed and splaying out towards the top. Carving on the knees was often hipped into the seat rail. Drop-in or stuff-over seats, sometimes with show-wood rails.
Early 18th century chairs are mainly mahogany, but still some made from walnut (as stocks lasted), even for’mahoganystyle’ chairs.
Robust antique mahogany chair of the 1740s reflecting the ponderous architectural style of William heal.
No longer part-veneered chair, but constructed from solid timber throughout (see CHIPPENDALE CHAIRS, opposite).
Carving on knees and crest rail. Acanthus and foliate designs replaced former shells and small C-scrolls. Grandest chairs could be ‘parcel-gilt’, meaning small areas of gilded decoration.
The scarcity of quality, well-proportioned chairs in this transitional style pushes their price up well into the thousands. A fine pair may fetch three or even four times as much as a standard quality pair. Country or
provincial versions will usually be less than half the price.