CHAIRS — antique oak dining chairs, English

walnut dining chair - oak dining chairs - Carolean dining chair - Yorkshire/Derbyshire oak dining chair - 17th century oak chairs - cabriole leg black wooden wooden chairs
By the mid-seventeenth century single antique oak dining chairs instead of carved wood chair dining table upholstered came into vogue for diners other than the head of the house and his wife.  Oak chairs were similar in construction, often with vertical slats rather than panels in the back. Normally, the back uprights are of square section, whereas there is some turning on the front legs and a central, turned front cross-stretcher. These chairs did not have the same range of carving as the prestigious panelled chair.
This is a sophisticated walnut dining chair of 17th century showing Continental (mainly Dutch) influence on British post-Restoration design. This fine bold chair shows the walnut through the original ebonising, particularly on the moulded back and scrolled stretcher. c. 1670
This is an early Carolean dining chair, with a high back and solid severe back uprights but turned front legs and cross-stretcher. Vertical back slats are moulded, the top rail carved with scrolls. The back uprights end in a scroll — a feature of these chairs. c.1660-1680
A highly distinctive Yorkshire/Derbyshire oak chair with overlay detail on back, typified by two or more horizontal back rails normally incorporating down turned crescents or open circles. Turned adornments, such as the acorns seen here, applied split balusters and curved tops to the backs are also found. The back rails are almost always carved or at least incised. The entire decoration of the oak chairs is ‘above table’, presumably for show, for the bases are conventional, the occasional variation being a high rail to retain a cushion on the solid seat.
Mid-to-late 17th century oak chairs are not similar to French louis 14th chair with their animal legs, made for mahogany drop leaf tables.
Shows later design, both cabriole leg black wooden chairs in the back, which has a down curved centre in the top rail, and in the shaped centre splat which fits into a ’shoe’ at seat level which suggests a post-1710 date. While the base is similar in design to the previous examples, the turning has lost its vigour and the central decoration on the underside of the front seat rail is a later concept.

Read also about Empire style claw foot furniture chairs as well as rococo and French oak and walnut furniture walnut side chairs.