CHAIRS  straight front legs, Victorian
Chairs with straight front legs in this section are generally dining chairs but, obviously, occasional chairs of this type exist as well. The variation in style is greater and most of the major schools of influence had their
effect on the dining chair. Indeed, the almost sacred aura connected with the business of eating made this imperative  dining rooms were sometimes larger and more carefully furnished than sitting rooms. This is
consistent with an ecclesiastical work ethic, which advised that one should be either working  out of the house or in a study  or eating, or sleeping but not idling about in a sitting room frittering away one’s time.
A mahogany chair of a design made from the 1830s to the end of the 1850s, from which this example dates. Its form clearly gave rise to many variations in back and legs but was essentially the basic upright Victorian
chair’s original. 1850-1860
Another mid-19th century design in oak which persisted in various alternatives until later in the century. C. and R. Light illustrate an upholstered chair with a similar back in their 1887 catalogue. The desire for a vaguely medieval form is evidently satisfied by the caned panels and carved decoration. 1840-1880
An oak chair, described as being ‘in the Eastlake manner’ due to the spindled arched gallery in the back, but with slab-like front legs connected to the back ones with rather nicely-turned, baluster-formed stretchers.
Acorn finials and ‘money’ pattern carving decorate the uprights. 1870-1890
Another oak chair with an arched spindled gallery in the back and a panel, strangely turned with concentric rings. The front legs are turned with a multiplicity of collars. Again, the influence of Eastlake, Talbert  any ,reformers’ will do. 1870-1890
Another oak chair with turned spindled galleries, of a type popular in the 1870s and 1880s. This is the armchair out of a dining set using single chairs of similar design. The triangular top rail is carved in bas-relief with floral scrolls and the leather covered upholstery has a Prince of Wales’ feathers motif on the back.
An interesting ‘near pair’ of chairs of very high quality. There is an aura of the Aesthetic Movement about the spindled galleries but the quality of turning and the latticing of the back of the right-hand version lead one to feel that one of the celebrated designers may have had a hand in them, Godwin perhaps, for there is an Anglo-Japanese feel to them, or even Norman Shaw, who designed similar chairs for Lord Armstrong’s house, Cragside. In fact, they are by Waterhouse, an architect who designed furniture for a manufacturer called Capeland, and was a close friend of Norman Shaw.
An occasional chair in mahogany, of a design found in manufacturers’ catalogues of the 1870s and 1880s with incised, or ,scratch’, decoration. Usually part of a suite of chaise-longue, armchairs and six singles, akin to balloon backs. 1870-1880
Another similar chair of lighter construction, incised with dot-dash grooving and inlaid with boxwood motifs.
A ‘Gothic’ design of oak chair made by Shoolbred. Not a happy termination to the top rail which leaves the outsides chopped off in mid air. 1880-1890
An oak dining chair, the ‘carver’ from a set of singles, of rather elaborately carved design using leaves and flowers, gadrooning and scrolls, intended to impress with the owner’s importance.
Another ‘grand’ chair in mahogany of semi-medieval design with leatherette or rexine covering to the upholstered parts. A popular style from the ‘Abbotsford’ influences onwards.
A late, straight, 19th century chair with a needlework covering and ring-incised, turned front legs.
Another simple, straight chair with a spindled gallery and ringed front legs.

CHAIRS: VICTORIAN UPHOLSTERED
About  1840-1900
Typical mid-Victorian lady’s drawing-room chair.
Left, a late-Victorian gentleman’s chair with scrolled arms, rounded back, straight
A’squared-up’ version 0/ the 1880’s with  machineproduced carving.
Turned legs and arm supports (the latter sometimes as a row of spindles).
CHAIRS: CORNER
Mahogany, walnut, occasionally rosewood. Stained beech and birch on later cheaper versions and for underframes. Sometimes frame of cast iron.
About 1710-1770 and about 1890-1915
Early-18thC corner chair.
Standard methods employed (see VICTORIAN BALLOON-BACKS, p. 66, and OTHER 19THC AND EARLY 20THC TYPES, p. 67). Legs structurally weak, so look for signs of new staining around repaired joints. Almost
inevitably re-upholstered, not always correctly. Should have plain seat, padded armrests and deep buttoning on the back and inside of arms only. Note that the back. buttoning starts above the waistline.
Carving: Occasionally floral or classical inlay on crest rails of squared-up versions.
French polish.
VALUES
Only the best quality, most curvaceous examples fetch more than three figures. Very many examples of all types are within the average buyer’s reach. Always take the cost of re-upholstering and fabric and trimmings
into account when negotiating.
Watch out for the new wood that characterizes increasing numbers of reproductions. These may look impressive at a glance but they lack patination and will probably have insubstantial foam upholstery.
PRIE DIEU
A very popular occasional drawing-room chair, ostensibly designed for prayer. Tall, narrow, straight back with flat top and T-shaped upholstery. Sometimes bordered by (fashionably twist) turned columns. Generally
cabriole legs on castors but later versions with straight, turned legs. Often covered with Berlin woolwork, a form of needlework popular with Victorian ladies.
Peculiar to the 18thC, and to the late Victorian; Edwardian period, corner chairs are thought by some to have been designed as gentlemen’s writing chairs. Nearly always single, only rarely seen in pairs. Despite their
awkward and uncomfortable appearance, surprisingly numerous today. Country versions abound. Often made as commode chairs.
Incorporating many features of standard chairs of their day  vase-shaped splats, cabriole legs, turned stretchers and so on; during Queen Anne period, straight legs and stretchers and pierced splats for Chippendale period, but they exhibit specific features of their own too.
Most have stretchers; there can be four of equal height, one on each side, or they can be arranged on a cross.
The back, which extends around two sides, has two splats between three identical and always turned uprights, supporting a curved, flat, horizontal rail which broadens out slightly as it extends beyond the side uprights to form arm supports. The centre of the rail rises up a few inches to form a back support. A few of these chairs have a much taller, shaped back support, in which case they are called ‘barber’s chairs’. Virtually all have drop-in seats.
On early versions, the front leg only may be cabriole, the other three being turned to match the uprights above.
As with all country-made chairs of the 18thC, design motifs may be mixed  Queen Anne splats for example, might be used with later straight legs.
Edwardian ‘revival’ versions were sometimes made of dark mahogany in Chippendale style (see p. 56) with straight legs, but more often in light mahogany with spindly, turned legs, stretchers and delicate pierced
splats. Some had raised, ornamental cresting. The seat could be drop-in; or fixed, with flattish upholstery set in one or two inches from the edge. Some country versions were made in oak with rushseats.
Walnut, mahogany and oak.
Standard practices employed. Uprights dowelled into ‘arms’ of the top rail.
Restrained carving on the best examples.
VALUES
Walnut Queen Anne cabriole leg versions are the most sought after.

CHAIRS: VICTORIAN BALLOON-BACKS
1840-1885
The most familiar Victorian chair, made in various forms and for a variety of rooms, long after its rococo or ‘Old French’ style was generally unfashionable. The rounded seat and waisted back reflected contemporary
dress fashion.
The majority with slender cabriole legs flowing down from serpentine seat rails and ending in neat, slightly pointed French-type, or scroll feet, the scroll formed almost as a ball. Continuous narrow moulding running
along edge of seat rail  just visible beneath upholstery and down legs. D-shaped seat with serpentine front and deeply padded upholstery. Backs waisted, base of sides being continuous with back legs or formed as
carved scroll.
Most with round, literally ‘balloon-shaped’ backs with carved and sometimes pierced cross-rail, but there are several variations:
Dipped top (an early feature).
Shouldered top.
Circular or oval back, the lower curve taking the place of the cross-rail.
Upholstered Louis XV back.
Angular ‘Gothic’ shape (this was a later feature).
Dining versions with straight turned legs, become thicker and more bulbous with time. Early versions may have Regency-type drop-in seat, later a deep, sometimes moulded, show-wood seat rail. Later backs often
considerably heavier, occasionally with a vertical plate.
Typical delicate mid-Victorian parlour chair:
selection of Victorian balloon-backs and their variants. Those with straght legs were probably made after 1870.
Lighter ‘fancy’ versions were made for bedrooms, in beech with thin, turned legs splayed at the foot and joined by stretchers, canework seats, and often painted or japanned surfaces. Similar, but stained, cheap beech types mass-manufactured for country use.
Solid rosewood, walnut and mahogany. Sometimes beech, grained to simulate rosewood; or painted or japanned. Beech and birch for under-frames. Occasionally papier mache (or purporting to be so, but actually of wood with typical papier mache decoration).
Standard methods generally employed, but dowels instead of mortise-and-tenon joints became increasingly common after 1850. These may, but not necessarily, be detected by the presence of a small, single cutting
gauge mark at the side of joints. Two marks will indicate a mortise-and-tenon.
Because of their fragile construction it is not advisable to use cabriole leg versions for dining; they will not tolerate heavy use. Indeed, marriages of front and back legs are not uncommon. Check for matching timber.
Limited carving on backs, sometimes pierced; occasionally on knees too. Incised machine-carved dot-dash carving on later (often Gothic-style) versions.
Papier mache with mother-of-pearl, painted and gilt decoration on a black ground, mostly flowers and scrolls.
Polish, japanning, paint. Stain for cheapest.
VALUES
Great variations in price. Most valuable whether sets or singles  are rosewood, followed by walnut, then mahogany. Stained beech considerably cheapen’. Fine carving and cabriole legs add to value. Price of singles now into three figures, sets of any quality into four.
Papier mache is very collectable. Price of one of these can be equivalent to a set of six others of low quality.

CHAIRS — late Victorian reproductions of 17th and 18th century designs
The constant Victorian search for new designs ironically led to a revival of interest in eighteenth century designs. Contrary to popular myth, top quality Victorian craftsmen were just as good as their predecessors but, while they accurately reproduced the details of decoration correctly, they often lost the feeling of the original; for example, the Victorians seemed to dislike the large square seats and low broad backs of the Chippendale period, so their renditions are often lighter and more delicate. Similarly, the termination of the back legs, which were normally shaped in good quality designs prior to fashionable Chippendale, are often missing. More telling of course is the lack of age on the unpolished areas of the seat rails and the use of square corner supports rather than the open variety originally used (though these are often replaced, the old rebate marks should still be there). On top quality reproductions the shoulder pieces (supporting the tops of the legs to the frames) are often carefully shaped with a rounded tool, whereas the originals were quickly cleaned off with an ordinary chisel and here particularly age, in the form of dark patination of varying shades rather than stain, should be apparent.
As with Victorian carving originality meant the difference between high value or near worthlessness. Indiscriminating foreign demand has changed this in the last few years to the point where ‘half age’ pieces can be surprisingly valuable. A good long set of Victorian reproductions have increased in value to the point where they are almost worth as much each as a single original example.
A satinwood Hepplewhite-style shield back chair, very much in keeping with the original spirit.
In sets, each A ‘Queen Anne’ chair in mahogany which, apart from the mahogany, gives away its Victorian origin by the seat rail (too shallow) and the cabriole legs (too thin behind the knee and a bit weak in the ankle).
In sets, each Another mahogany ‘Queen Anne’ chair in which the lower half is quite successful but the treatment of the back is too clumsy by far — what is more the back is too high; this style of chair has a lower back if genuine — see the section on Chairs —cabriole leg.
Victorian ‘Chippendale’ chair of quite good quality as far as the back goes, but with golf-club-like feet on the legs, which are too thin and bandy.
In sets, each $150 — 250
Victorian oak Charles II-style chair of quite faithful design —the colour and patination of the wood would be the give away here.
An upholstered version of a Queen Anne shepherd’s crook armchair in walnut. Much too cosy and Victorian and on closer examination no age to the wood.
Late 19th century
Quite a good Victorian `Chippendale’ chair, but, again, the seat rail and the legs are too thin for the real thing.
Reproduction Chinese lacquer and walnut George I chair which has a lot thrown in by way of scrolls and an extraordinary central stretcher curving from the back stretcher up under the seat to the back of the front seat rail. The legs are bandy, and nearer to the Victorian baloon back than anything from the eighteenth century. 1920s
The Victorians’ love of decoration enjoyed to the full in this alleged Chippendale design. Rams’ heads for the cabriole knees and naturally the same animals’ feet. The riband back and the extremities of the top rail, the
front serpentine seat rail, all carrying their full quota of carving. Why, one wonders, were the arms and their supports so neglected The small size of seat is an easy give away to the later date. In terms of their value a
few years ago the price is staggering.