Windsor Chair with High Back - A Child’s Windsor Chair with the Gothic Arched Back - Windsor Chair of the 19th Century

WINDSOR CHAIRS
Windsor chairs or stickback chairs as they are more properly called, were probably first made in the early part of the 19th century. Principally they were a cheap form of seating usefulfor public assemblies, taverns, kitchens and the houses of the less prosperous. There are however some fine quality examples in existence which suggest that the virtues of the chair were appreciated by the more well to do also.
Early examples of Windsor chairs, particularly those with cabriole legs at front and back, have become expensive. Any Windsor chair with yew wood used in it moves to the top of the price range and there were some made in mahogany, which usually indicates better quality. The run-of-the-mill chair usually has an elm seat and legs. The yew chairs also normally have elm seats.
The same designs were copied for many years and dating a chair can therefore be extremely difficult. A late 19th century chair made in an earlier style but hard used and polished for 80 years is virtually unidentifiable from the earlier version. The heavier turned legs and arm supports one normally associates with the Victorian chairs were not always irresistable to the Victorian chair maker.
The principal chair making area seems to have been High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire but chairs of individual design were produced in other parts of the country.
It is worth noting that sets of Windsors do not attract a premium price per chair over a single to the same extent as other chairs.
A comb-back Windsor chair of approximately 17 80. Note the well-shaped saddle seat and the leg turning which is emphasized at the lower part. Many American Windsor chairs are of this design.
Sets are also not usually found of this type
A modern Windsor chair made to a mid-18th century design. The seat would be very ample and the chair of bold proportions. Note the curving crinoline stretcher between the front legs - a feature usually associated with better-made chairs.
Price Range: (for original period chair)
Unusual Windsor chair with high back C. 1800. Note the vase shaping of the centre splat which is attractive. Nevertheless a heavier appearance is given by the splat.
18th century Windsor chair. Difficult to date exactly since this type was made for a long time, but probably late in the century and continuing into the early 19th century. The simple stickback without a splat and saddle seat are typical of the earlier types. The curving arm supports are also interesting since during and after the Regency period turned arm supports became the fashion. This indicates that this chair may be earlier. However this design appears in Gillows cost books in the early 19th century both in mahogany and an elm and cherrywood combination.
Price Range: Elm and Cherrywood
A child’s Windsor chair with the Gothic arched back in yew wood. Although the arm supports and legs bear fairly representative 19th century turning work, the crinoline stretcher and well shaped splat make this a nicely proportioned and well made chair.
A fairly typical Windsor chair of the 19th century. The proportion and the turning of legs and arm supports are altogether heavier. There are still reasonable numbers of these chairs in existence and their very strong construction particularly when yew is used, makes them very durable and utilitarian antiques.
A fairly common type of low backed Windsor used for dining purposes. Note the turned arm supports which indicate 19th century origins.
Another child’s Windsor chair, this time of the high feeding type. Holes are left through the arms so that a spindle may be inserted to prevent the child falling out. The front rest has been removed and the holes in the front legs to fit it can be clearly seen. The splat is decorated with the Prince of Wales feathers, an emblem popular from Hepplewhite’s time onwards, but usually dating from the early 19th century in these chairs.
A mid-19th century Mendlesham chair, a Suffolk variation of Windsor designs rather allied to Lancashire chairs in the decoration.
A late 19th century development of the Windsor chair. Rather ornate with heavyturning; simpler versions were common in schools and offices or institutions until recently.
The Smoker’s Bow, a chair very common in offices and public houses from the end of the 19th century onwards. A large heavy chair which will stand considerable abuse. The horizontal hoop is no longer made bybending the wood but is constructed from several pieces shaped on a band saw and screwed together. In early Windsor chairs this method of forming the hoop was adopted but not always by using screws; the upright spindles did this.
Another simple variation of a type which was made during the latter half of the 19th century. In this case there is no left arm since the chair was made for an Officer’s mess where the facility to rise, wearing a sword, without picking up the chair as well was a considerable advantage.

CHAIRS: COUNTRY WINDSOR
Late-18th century yew comb-back Windsor chair.
Made from the early-18thC onwards by wood turners or ‘bodgers’ setting up temporary workshops in woodland areas. Although made in many parts of the country - hence enormous regional differences in detail - High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire became, and has remained, the centre of the industry. Since the late-19thC, Windsors and their variants have been mass-produced there by machine.
They have many uses - particularly in gardens, coffee-houses and sometimes in halls (18thC) and in kitchens, farmhouses and institutions in the 19th and 20thC.
Early ’stick-back’ versions were simple, with taper-turned sticks (turned with tapering ends) rising from a saddle seat through a horizontal yew-wood hoop forming back and arm supports and dowelling into a shaped crest rail. The most distinctive of these have a comb shape - hence the term ‘comb back’. Splayed, turned legs, at first without stretchers, but soon with either turned H or curved crinoline (or cow’s horn) stretchers.
Hooped backs (with a continuous hoop rising from the back support to replace the horizontal crest rail): Shaped and pierced central splats (at first sometimes set below the back support only); and cabriole legs all
appeared around 1750.
Pierced Gothic splats: Often combined with pointed arch backs and cabriole legs, were introduced about 1760. The familiar wheel-back splat and diagonal struts rising from a ‘bobtail’ extension of the seat - both
common features on machine-made Windsors - first appeared around 1775.
‘Gothic’ Windsor armchair.
With the exception of cabrioles, front and back were turned and identical (from the late-19thC usually machine-turned with double or triple collars.
Saddle seats were common to all and arm supports either turned or (mostly before 1810) curved.
For popular variants - including the ‘Mibnc1leshann’ chair (early-19thC onwards) and the collectable ’smoker’s cow’ - see illustrations.
Various combinations of elm, ash, yew, beech, birch and fruit woods. Occasionally mahogany. Elm used almost invariably for seats; beech common for legs and, until the 19thC nearly always yew for hoops.
Selection of 19th C chairs: A, Mendlesharn,- B, smoker’s bow C, farmhouse kitchen; D, child’s Windsor highchair; F rope-back kitchen chair.
All parts dowelled. Legs and back uprights always separate (legs never continuous with uprights above). Seats split, not sawn (saw marks indicate a later date). Sticks taper-turned on a pole lathe, hence of irregular
thickness. (Machine-cut stocks have an even shape and are not tapered.) Hoops steam-bent into shape. On single chairs, the hoop passes through seat and is split and wedged underneath. On machine-made versions
this does not occur  sometimes the hoop does not pierce all the way through the seat.
Carving and piercing on splats. Turning on legs and some arm supports.
Paint common in 18thC, most fashionably green, sometimes black (japanned). Otherwise polish; some left unfinished for outdoor use. Stain and varnish used in 19thC.
VALUES
Plenty of variation. Good early and hoop back Windsors are expensive, few selling for less than four figures. 19thC versions correspondingly less. Harlequin sets of all ages are common and, if matched well, no less
expensive than an identical set. Few post-1900 sets fetch less than four figures.
Yew, crinoline stretcher, cabriole legs, comb back, Gothic splat and arched back all enhance the value.

CHAIRS — Windsor and related types
Windsor chairs first appeared at the beginning of the eighteenth century, but the bulk were made in the nineteenth century. These chairs were a cheap, comfortable form of seating made in the country for kitchen,
tavern and general public use.
Tom Crispin, the well-known St. Albans dealer specialising in oak and country furniture, has photographed and researched the named examples he has handled over the last twenty years. He published his findings to
date in Volume XIV of Furniture History the journal of the Furniture History Society. We are grateful to both the Society and Tom Crispin for permission to draw on his work in allocating makers and likely dates of
manufacture to the pieces in this section. As a result of Tom Crispin’s researches in parish records, census and trade directories, many dates are later than had hitherto been thought. The main indication of area of
manufacture is to be found in the shape of the arm supports, legs from different areas often having similar designs. North Midlands used turned arm supports as in 241. East Anglia tended to use a shaped front arm
support cut from the solid wood see 242 (a method widely used in late nineteenth century examples in the South), while in the Thames Valley, which includes the High Wycombe area, two methods were used. Early
examples follow 235, later 236 which is made from a stick, a thicker version of the other sticks used.
Value Points:
Yew wood is important to high value but remember that seats are nearly always in elm, even in the finest examples. cabriole legs also help value considerably as do some special shapes of splat. Perhaps the most
sought after splat shape is the Gothic (not shown), but fine early comb-backs and original designs also command high prices.
An early comb-back version with shaped top rail and simple turned legs. It has a gloriously antique quality.
1760-1780
A good quality yew Windsor, with ash back legs, well designed cabriole legs and crinoline stretcher. Identical to named example by William Webb of Newington, Surrey. Set of six
A further development in the comb-back design, all the legs now exhibiting decorative turning and baluster shape. So-called Goldsmith type.
Early 19th century
A classic form — an early nineteenth century yew chair with crinoline stretcher and typical turning. Made right through the middle of the century. 1820-1860
A nineteenth century yew and elm ‘Yorkshire’ Windsor with decorative splat and characteristic ’smoker’s bow’ base chair to which the hooped back is fitted. 1840-1880
A comb-back with good cabriole legs, well-shaped splat and top rail. Thames Valley area — probably by Hewitt of Slough.
Mid-18th century
A typical stickback Windsor of late eighteenth /early nineteenth century design with saddle seat but no splat. The curving arm supports indicate a pre-Regency date. This design appears in Gillow’s cost books in the early nineteenth century, when Gillows offered them for sale in mahogany and elm with cherrywood.
1780-1810    Yew $350 — 450 Ash, elm $200 — 300
Yew crinoline stretcher, front legs and bow. The splat is perhaps too timid. Attributable to John Amos, Grantham, Lincs. c.1810-1840
The lowback version of 238 made over a considerable period of time and until recently to be seen in sets. Very similar to named chairs made in the Worksop/ Nottingham area. 1810-1840
A very typical form of wheelback, mainly in yew. Light and elegant.
c.1820 onwards    Yew $300 — 400 Ash, elm  $140 — 180
A good design with triple pierced splats, a type attributable to Robert Prior of Cambridge. An attractive yew design.
Early 19th century    $400 — 500 Sets about $900 each
An interesting contrast with the last. It has a crinoline stretcher which should make it more desirable, but heavy legs and square arms and, above all, the lack of yew detract.
c. 1820 onwards