CHAIRS: UPHOLSTERED, WING (OR EASY)
About 1700 onwards
Deriving from adjustable-back French sleeping chairs of the 1670s and made in virtually standard 18thC form at various times until the present day, wing chairs were for relaxation, not formal use. The wings protected the sitter from draughts.
About 1700-1750: Cabriole legs, either plain with pad feet and turned stretchers, or with carved knees, claw-and-ball feet and (usually) no stretchers. Rear square legs raked backwards. Until about 1730, a marked divide between back and wings, with high curved back, and wings curving sharply down to top of bold, outward-scrolling arms. After 17 30, wings and back seem to follow one continuous curve. Two types of scroll arm.
Plump upholstery with deep, loose seat cushion.
About 1750-1780: Legs, straight, plain and square, sometimes moulded, linked by stretchers. Occasionally with blind fret carving of Chinese or Gothic nature. Back straight or waved. Wings of equal height to back.
Outward roll of arms less pronounced. Padding and seat cushion less fat.
Mid-18th century wing chair with straight legs and stretchers.
About 1780-1810: Straight, plain, tapering legs without stretchers. Sometimes on castors. Narrower look overall, with flat top and comparatively straight wings and arms.
Victorian: Various simple curving outlines and stumpy turned bun feet on castors. Reproduction Queen Anne with thin cabrioles around the end of the century.
MATERIALS
Walnut and mahogany for legs. Beech and other softwoods for under frame. Legs (and stretchers) were the only visible wooden parts, otherwise fully upholstered.
Standard methods employed. Carving on knees sometimes hipped into seat.
Repairs likely, particularly to wings. Check for loose joints. Marriages of old legs to new frames not uncommon. At least part of the underframe should be visible for inspection. Upholstery unlikely to be original.
Some carving on knees, legs and feet until about 1770.
Polish. Fashionable upholstery fabrics included silk, silk velvet, needlework, leather, silk damask. Early examples were edged with braid; after about 1750 with close brass-nailing. Gimp or tasselled fringes in Queen
Victoria’s reign.
VALUES
18thC chairs certainly in four figures, some early ones almost into five, but decreasing towards three according to date and simplicity of design. Original, usable upholstery is a considerable bonus.
REPRODUCTIONS
Many, many 20thC reproductions. Apart from some exaggerated Queen Anne versions produced before and between the wars, most lack robust quality of originals. Their appearance is not helped by insubstantial
synthetic upholstery materials.

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 — upholstered, with open arms
A walnut chair with shepherd’s crook arms and cabriole legs of high quality carving incorporating shell motifs; hipped to the decorated seat rail. It has ball-and-claw feet. The termination of the back legs is interestingly designed. 1720-1730
A leather-covered mahogany chair on cabriole legs with four ball-and-claw feet. Scroll and leaf carving completes the value points on this thoroughly robust piece. c. 1740
A mid-century design of chair with a gadrooned leaf carved front rail and the fine decoration to the cabrioles which end in very successful scrolled feet, as used by Chippendale in some of his designs. Very elegant chair.
Another Chippendale motif, three clustered column carved front legs to give a slightly bamboo effect. The leaf carving on the reeded curved arms is a typical period design. 1750-1770
A variant in the style of the back which gives altogether a lighter appearance, which is however not supported by the thick Chippendale moulded legs; the arms by contrast are excellent. One can well see why the lighter neo-classical designs were so popular. c. 1765

CHAIRS — upholstered 18th century, evolution of wings
Upholstery, like chairs, came late to the general ruck of people. Important personages, not obliged to sit on benches or stools, doubtless padded their important seats with a variety of coverings. For our purposes the upholstered chair can start in the late seventeenth century and go forward from there. The price of upholstered chairs is greatly influenced by the presence of original or contemporary covering fabric.
A late seventeenth century chair with typical scrolled feet and arm supports, with carved front stretcher again echoing these motifs. The silk covering could well be original. The straight high thin sides are typical.
1680-1690
A walnut chair with needlework covering of fine proportion. The turning of the legs, which end in bun feet, and the stretcher and arm supports, is delightful. c. 1670-1680
Another superb walnut wing chair on cabriole legs with scrolls at the top. The arms have an elegant outwards sweep. The only possible criticism is that the legs are, if anything, too thin, lacking the robustness of the period. 1710-1730
258 A sophisticated walnut wing chair of the early eighteenth century with cabriole legs and shaped stretchers. There is iicely scrolled curve inside the knee of the cabrioles, which end in pad feet.
1710-1720 A leather-covered wing chair on cabriole legs in walnut with pad feet. 1720-1730
A slightly later type than 262. It lacks the broad roll of the arms and the straight top is less attractive. The castors are new — the originals would be broad and thin, and the seat looks out of shape. c.1770
Better quality than the previous example with slightly hipped decoration and good ball-and-claw carving. The front cabriole seen on the right of the picture appears in the photograph to be too splayed out. c.1730
A Chippendale design with the typical square moulding to the front legs and stretcher. The wings curve out from the back of the arms and continue the serpentine form of the top rail in a most satisfying manner. A form much admired by reproduction manufacturers. c. 1760
The thinner tapering legs and lack of stretcher suggest a late eighteenth century date. The back and the wings have integrated into a single curve relieved by the pleating.
c. 1780 Still fine quality but a much less grand piece. Moulded decoration on the arms and legs. The same solid four square appearance. c. 1765

CHAIRS — upholstered, without arms
This type of chair enjoyed a long period of popularity. At first the comfort and later the practicality ensured that with period features it continued to be made. The legs provide the clue to date.
Four good square cabrioles, C-scrolls, carved decoration on the knee. Of all these examples this is the only one with ‘movement’ in its back (see also 123 in Chairs — cabriole leg, high back). The period, or at least early tapestry, adds to the value even if it detracts from the usefulness. c.1705
Again legs here clearly proclaim a Queen Anne date and again the use of the C-scroll to decorate the outside of the top of the cabrioles and the use of the cabrioles on four legs is typical. But not the quality of the previous example. c. 1710
The moulded cross stretcher and turned and carved legs indicate an early date. A good well-balanced chair.
c. 1690
A highly individual chair of great character made like the others in walnut. It has a more primitive quality as witnessed by the subdued use of the scroll decoration combined with a highly confident ‘double cabriole’.
c. 1710
A late walnut example. Plain, but notice the less well made cabrioles terminating in high shaped oval pads.
c. 1730
Potential value of needlework disregarded
The serpentine top rail is the only decorative feature on this simple square Chippendale period mahogany example. c. 1750

CHAIRS — upholstered, neo-classical
The upholstered square shaped chairs in the earlier sections were peculiarly British. The high sophistication of the French designs towards the end of the eighteenth century were in strong contrast; and the introduction of the neo-classical designs of the Adams brothers; both resulted in demand from the rich for a less ponderous, lighter, more opulent design.
The examples that follow show the huge gradations in quality that were produced over a period. From sumptuous pieces, that in terms of quality are arguably the match of French designs, to the cosy Victorian mass-produced adaptations of the type. But even here quality varies to a surprising degree.
Adam carved wood and gilt elaborately decorated with paterae and husk. The shaped seats having a design of honeysuckle and scrolls on turned tapered legs carved with acanthus leaves. c.1770
Another Adam design chair with oval back and needlework covering. The fluting of the legs and frieze adds lightness and elegance to the design but it is nowhere near the same quality as the last example. 1760-1770
A mahogany open armchair of Adam influence, with turned legs which are fluted and reeded. An elegant design not flattered by the upholstery. 1770-1780
A Victorian walnut open armchair in the French manner —say Louis XVI — with scroll carving and of very high quality execution. One can clearly see the design moving towards the next example. Now much reproduced in Italy and Spain c.1850
This chair clearly shows the development towards the typical Victorian upholstered chair, see the section on Chairs — upholstered, Victorian. Little remains of the neo-classical. Victorian comfort and the love of curves have taken over. c. 1845

CHAIRS — upholstered, Victorian, open arms type
An imposing highly-carved luxurious mahogany chair with much acanthus-leaf carving and scrolling. The turned legs are carved as well, only the back legs are left plain. Solid early Victorian prosperous comfort.
The neo-classical model based on French design of the eighteenth century (see Chairs — upholstered, neo-classical) has now almost evolved to the recognisably mid-Victorian style. The oval back is still a complete entity and is supported as previously. The legs and arms have fully evolved. c. 1840
Would-be impressive giltwood armchair. The carving on the end of the arms is lumpy, the mask at the centre of the top rail is unimaginative, the upholstered arm supports are equally inelegant and look like an afterthought. c. 1830
The evolution is complete in this good quality example of a lady’s chair. Carved decoration on the top rail, hipped seat decoration and a good curve to the jointure of the back and seat, now all one, make this a desirable chair. 1850-1870
An all-over deep-buttoned leather armchair with mahogany frame, moulded back and seat rail, short turned legs. A good design. Leather is expensive and this one is in excellent condition.
A walnut example but of less quality, the decoration on the over-thick knee is very slight. 1850-1870