CHAIRS: BACK-STOOLS, FARTHINGALES, CANED AND OTHER 17THC SEATS
About 1615-1700
Typical upholstered farthingale chair.
The 17thC saw the widespread introduction of the single chair, referred to at the time as a `back-stool’, literally a stool with a back. Fixed upholstery sometimes replaced loose cushions and after 1660 woven canework introduced from the East Indies  was fashionably seen on [...]

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 [...]

CHAIRS — hall and porters
Though grouped for convenience they are in fact complete opposites. The hall chair offers a rock-like resistance to the posterior and the back no comfort. It is almost as though they were designed to impress on those made to wait, the fact they were being made to do so. They were [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

CHAIRS — corner, 1700-1750 (also known as writing chairs)
A fine quality chair, mostly solid walnut but with veneered seat rail and splats. The turned uprights are well shaped. c. 1715
An interesting country version of 132, with cabriole legs ending in pad feet. Only the front cabriole has a shell carved on the knee; the turned [...]

CHAIRS — cabriole leg, high back
It wasn’t just the introduction of the cabriole leg, but the way it appears to have changed the thinking on how chairs should be made that caused so dramatic a revolution in chair design. In the next sections we have separated these chairs into two distinct categories. First, the group [...]