William and Mary period  walnut armchair -  oak Queen Anne period country chair - Walnut Queen Anne period corner chair

An oak armchair of c.1680. Note that the stretchers also exhibit twist turning as well as all the uprights. The back carving is well executed with the top rail and front stretcher showing two cherubs supporting a coronet  ‘boyes and crownes’. These chairs, taken singly, are still somewhat undervalued although sets are a specialist demand and command high prices. The back and seat were probably caned originally.
Three more late seventeenth century country chairs - c.1690 in oak, showing the variations possible in the back. The squab seats have been added for comfort. It is interesting not only to see the similarity of leg and
stretcher construction but the variations possible in the turning of them.
Price Range: Single $30  $40 Pair $70  $90
Value points: Quality of execution and carving of back
Late seventeenth century  William and Mary period  walnut armchair, c.1695. Curved and moulded stretchers. Note the bulb turning and ‘bun’ feet  to be seen on other pieces of the period such as side tables and chest
stands. The wool or hair upholstery is covered with velvet with bullion braiding. Note also the curvature of the arms to balance the stretchers.
Price Range: $120  $150 for this quality. Chairs of this period tend to be uncommon and wide variations occur depending on condition and quality.
Value points: Walnut
Balancing of design of arms and stretchers  Quality of turning
William and Mary period walnut chair c.1700 with cane back. A marked development in design from the previous example. The high cane back and square section joining of the back legs has been retained but the new form of leg  the cabriole — has appeared, introduced to England by foreign workmen. The cabrioles in this example finish in hoof or pied-de-biche feet. This is an early form of Continental influence. The transition between the high backed cane chairs of the seventeenth century and the finely carved cabrioles of the eighteenth century is to be seen. The Victorians were fond of making hall chairs of this type but usually lost proportion in legs and stretchers.
An oak Queen Anne period country chair, c.1710. The back splat is of the shape typically associated with the period. The termination of the uprights is very interesting because the line has been carried into the top rail
and over to a pointed termination where the splat joins it. The front rail is rather heavy, but shaped, and the cabriole legs are gently curved, ending in simple pad feet. The rather rigid back legs and lack of rake
emphasize the country origin. The solid seat has a typical shallow moulding around it, probably originally fitted to retain a squab cushion.
A superb walnut armchair of about 1720 raised on high quality cabriole legs decorated on the knee with criss cross carving and small tassels, the ends terminating in ball and claw feet. The back is of unusual shape but the solid splat of walnut veneered on oak is found on less good examples. The shepherd’s crook arms are well proportioned. The thick rim round the drop-in seat is typical of the period, as is the shell motif repeated on the cresting rail. A side view would show the pronounced rake of this top quality chair.
Price Range: $500  $700
Queen Anne period walnut chair c.1710 of early design. The now famous splat shape is evident but the high back is retained, although a curve in the rake of the back has emerged - the spoon back. There is a shaped
and moulded stretcher but in this case the cabriole legs terminate in simple pad feet. The height of the back and the square section of the back legs are retained from the previous century. An interesting feature
peculiar to Q. A. workmanship is the slightly raised planed moulding at the bottom of the frame just under the seat, rather like cockbeading. cabriole-leg side tables and chest stands of the period sometimes
exhibit the same feature.
Walnut Queen Anne period corner chair with inlaid diamond pattern in boxwood. Turned stretchers and uprights. Typically shaped splats in figured walnut. Drop-in seat. cabriole legs ending in pad feet; note the shell motif carved on the front cabriole, a  factor of quality. This chair is possibly of country origin.
Price Range: $100 - $150. Generally a man’s taste.
Value points: Quality of execution, i.e. proportion, grace of cabrioles, shell motifs etc.
All legs cabrioles  (sometimes the back and side legs are left straight or turned, detracting from value).
A Queen Anne period country walnut chair, c.1710, which was originally rush-seated. The front legs are cabrioles and the turned stretchers between the legs have square joints. The presence of stretchers tends to
distract somewhat from the line of the cabrioles and is generally assumed to be a feature of the chairs of the earlier part of the period. The back legs and uprights are also turned, a feature frequently found on chairs of
this period. The plain back splat is curved and the rush seat was of the drop-in type. The cabriole legs end in pad feet and the design and execution of the chair is of good quality for country furniture. Instead of fitting shoulder pieces at the sides of the cabriole knees, the flat facets are covered with
round knobs, glued on.
Price Range: Pair $80 - $110 Four $250 - $400 Six $500 - $700
Value points: Quality of cabriole and back
Note the cabrioles on this example are slightly bandy and knee (top) is too heavy for the foot.

ANTIQUE CHAIRS: CHIPPENDALE

Thomas Chippendale - rococo chairs, chinoiserie and Gothic chairs - Queen Anne chairs - mid-18thC chairs - Chippendale chairs reproductions
Chippendale chairs were originally produced in 1750-1780 by Thomas Chippendale.
Thomas Chippendale’s Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director, published in three editions (1754, 1755 and 1762) had a historic influence on mid-18thC chair design. In it, Chippendale applied popular rococo chairs, chinoiserie and Gothic chairs motifs to already fashionable shapes for both grand and simple household furniture. Few Chippendale designs were copied precisely. Chair makers at all levels -London, provincial and country - adapted and modified their designs to suit their own chairs, and their clients’ tastes and pockets.
Lower back Chippendale chairs than previously, with serpentine crest rails, generally ending in outward-curving scrolls. (Rounded shoulders rare.) Carved and pierced splats of varied design including rococo C-scrolls, ribbons (’ribbandback’ in 18thC terminology), Gothic arches, tracery and quatrefoils, scrolls and many other. Because of poor communications, chair makers outside London did not have full access to new designs. Thus provincial designs of this time may still retain stretchers, even when made in mahogany with the ‘new’ pierced splats and winged crestings. Similarly, Queen Anne chairs are still found on mid-18thC chairs with straight, Chippendale-style legs.
The time-lag between the evolution of a new style in fashionable London and its adoption by makers elsewhere gradually diminished as communications improved, but even so, in some areas local
preferences remained strong and individual types and designs of chair persisted for several decades.
Transitional chair will Queen Anne legs and stretchers, but Serpentine rail and pierced splat,
Above and below left, designs from Chippendale’s Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director (1754).
interlacing patterns. ‘Chinese’ chairs with Chinese fretwork instead of a splat with a pagoda-shaped cresting. Space under arms of chairs sometimes similarly filled with fretwork. (Because of their fragility and because chinoiserie was often confined to bedrooms, not many of these chairs survive.)
Side uprights were flat and either plain or fluted. Carving not unknown, but unless of high quality and obviously by the same hand as the crest rail, be suspicious.
A design often seen today, but not illustrated in Chippendale’s Director, was the ladder-back, in which the pierced and carved horizontals echo the crest rail in shape and design. Thought to date from the 1760s
onwards.
Seats were flat and straight (dished seats not introduced for dining chairs until about 1750). Square corners with straight legs, rounded with cabrioles, the latter usually indicating an early date. Stuff-over (occasionally
with show-wood rail) or drop-in seats; stuff-over seats correctly finished with close brass nails, not gimp (a 19thC method).
Comfortably shaped arms with supports rising two thirds from back.
Front legs of Chippendale chairs could be cabriole, with foliate carving on knees and claw-and-ball feet, or, more commonly, straight, either plain or with simple mouldings. Sometimes chamfered inner edges. Blind fret-carving or legs composed of carved Gothic cluster columns occasionally seen on highest quality chairs. On both types, rear legs raked backwards. As a very general rule, the steeper the angle, the poorer the quality.
H-stretcher arrangement, the cross stretcher closer to the front than previously, with an additional higher back stretcher.
Corner brackets sometimes present at top of legs. Could be Chinese fret-work.
Mahogany was the fashionable wood for chair production with instantly identifiable when made in woods other than mahogany. Often less well-proportioned and slighter overall. Can have a top-heavy look. Simpler, less confident design of splats with very little, or no, carving. Legs often completely plain; cabrioles end in pad feet. Crudest versions may have wooden seat with side-to-side planking nailed to seat frame.
beech for stuff-over seat rails (see coNSTRUCTION). Oak, walnut, elm, ash and beech chairs were used too by country makers.
Victorian reproductions of Chippendale chairs.
Either rather clumsy mahogany chairs with too much, too ornate carving and bandy and too thin cabrioles ending in heavy claw-and-ball feet; or mean and spindly-looking with flat, shaped splats and no carving at all. Frequently ill-proportioned chairs with narrow seats, tallish backs and thin, shallow seat rails. Shoe-piece is often formed as part of seat rail. Rear legs seldom raked far back. On claw-and-ball feet, claw tends to perch on, rather than clutch, the ball.
More Chippendale chairs reproductions have been made of mid-18thC chairs than of any other period, but a distinction should be made between those ‘in the style of (as above) and genuine copies, whether intended to deceive or not. It was, and still is not uncommon for a good set of chairs to be enlarged. If this was done some time ago, it may be virtually impossible to identify the later chairs. However, as they were made from different timber, there will probably be a difference in weight.
Long sets of chairs were often numbered with incised Roman numerals on the seat rail. If these are present and are not consecutive, the set is obviously incomplete.
Occasionally, arms have been added to one or more single chairs in a run to make a more saleable set. Identify these by comparing the width of the seats  a true armchair is a few inches wider than a single.
The methods employed by London makers of the mid-18thC set the standards for virtually all wooden chair manufacturers until the present day. Principal features: With one exception, mortise-and-tenon joints through.
Modern reproductions of Chippendale chairs.
Modern chairs have a particular tendency to be smaller and narrower than originals, a necessity for many of today’s smaller dining rooms. If you are thinking of buying a set of old chairs to fit around a modern reproduction
table  or vice versa  it may well be worth marking out the floor to ensure that they all fit comfortably.

Typical Chippendale chair with cabriole legs and claw-and-ball feet. One quality oak armchair with pierced legs and ,stretchers.  Mahogany armchair with ‘Gothic’ splat.  Chinese’ chair Will pagoda cresting; ladder-backsimple provincial chair with wooden seat. 6 Victorian Chippendale reproductions.
Frame of side-chair; stretcher joints usually dove-tailed. Until about 1715, all joints pegged, but after that date those on backs and leg/stretcher joints only glued. Pegging on all joints appears on country-made furniture until much later.
Arms of chairs screwed to side seat rail and back uprights, the screws countersunk in a circular groove, their heads concealed by pegs or dowels. Pointed machine-made screws did not appear until about 1850 so earlier screws can be identified by their irregularities and blunt ends. If a hand-made or lathe-turned screw has been undisturbed since the 18thC, the wood around the head will probably be noticeably stained with rust.
Left, hand-cat screw; right, machine-cut screw.
The back splat tenons into the crest rail and into the shoe below, but is glued only at the top to allow some movement of the wood. The shoe is a separate piece of wood from seat rail. Sometimes the splat passes right through the shoe, tenoning into the rail below. On stuff-over seats, the shoe is removable to allow fabric to pass beneath and simply nailed on. A re-upholstered chair will therefore have more than one set of nail holes.
The crest rail over-rides the side uprights
when curving outwards, but is set between them on a chair with rounded shoulders. In this case, each upright is in two pieces.
Backs of chairs were un-decorated. In the 18thC they were designed to stand against the wall when not in use and in theory the backs were only seen by servants. This practice persisted even when chairs were more
often left around a central table  about 1830 onwards.
Drop-in seats were rebated and the frame strengthened by small, close-fitting triangular blocks glued into the corners.
Stuff-over chear seats with rails of beech or other softwood (beech being a softer and easier wood to hammer tacks into) were strengthened at front  and just occasionally at back too  with corner braces, strips of V2 inch/ 1.75 cm square sectioned wood about 4-6 inches/9-15 cm long which rebated into grooves cut in the rails. These have often been replaced at a later date with triangular blocks with a curving outer edge, screwed to all four corners. This was a post-1840 practice and will indicate either a later date or a later repair. If the latter, the grooves cut for the original braces will be clearly visible.
A stuff-over seat with a show-wood rail was also usually made of beech, the show-wood being either a strip of veneer or a carved (or gadrooned) moulding, glued and tacked on.
Fretwork brackets and railing of ‘Chinese’ (and some other) chairs were sometimes cut from laminated wood (a process normally associated with the 20thC). Layers of veneer were glued together, the grain of alternate
sheets running in opposite directions.
Early  Chippendale chairs added to either side of cabriole knees were simply glued on, therefore often missing or replaced. These were separate pieces of wood because cabrioles were cut from a single piece of wood and extra width at the top would have meant more wastage. Replacements are usually identified by slight difference in colour and grain of wood and by carving obviously by a different hand.
Straight legs are always united by stretchers, cabrioles never at this date.
Carving, principally on splats and top rails and knees of cabrioles.
19thC Chippendale chairs may be stained in parts to disguise the use of different batches of timber.
Value always depends on a combination of factors  well-proportioned correct design and quality of craftsmanship being the most obvious reasons for a high price. Repairs even when skilfully made  will detract from the value of the piece, especially if there are replacement parts.
The price of a good single chair of this period is often into four figures and in exceptional cases close to five. As a very general guide, a pair of chairs of any date is worth about three times as much as a single, a set of four six times, and a set of six or more at least ten times as much. Until fairly recently six was thought to be a desirable number for a set, but this has now increased to eight. Examine long sets carefully for ‘enlargements’.
A chair with arms will invariably be worth more than a similar chair without, though not as much as a pair of singles.
The value of sets of good Victorian or Edwardian reproductions of 18thC chairs has increased substantially in recent years. The price of each one may equal that of a single original chair, though the set as a whole will
be considerably less valuable than an original set of equal size.
The price of provincial and country Chippendale chairs is less predictable because of considerable variation in design, but such pieces seldom fetch more than the value of their more sophisticated counterparts.
If construction does not provide you with sufficient indication of date, look for genuine signs of wear.
The front stretcher and outer edges of the front legs will always show more signs of knocks than any other part. The undersides of the feet will be rubbed and the corners may be rough from constant knocks. The crest rail and uprights may show signs of repair where the chair has been damaged by incorrect handling.
It is, incidentally, always better to lift a chair by its seat, not its back or arms. Dirt and grease deposited by hands constantly lifting the chair will have stained the underside of the front seat and crest rails and will also have accumulated in the crevices of carving and around the joints. The undersides of seat rails on 19thC Chippendale copies were often stained to simulate dirt, but the handled areas will probably look lighter where the stain has rubbed off.

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 uprights under the arms are not embellished with any shaping as in 132; the cabrioles do not flow as boldly, but the maker has added the precaution of stretchers between them for strength, and these are shaped where they join the leg just like the uprights of example 132. The decoration of a triangular inlay of boxwood on the seat rail and alternating box and ebony on found on wainscot chairs.
c. 1715
A simple solid walnut corner chair with straight legs which belie the earlier date suggested by the shape of the splats. c. 1745
An oak variation with only the front leg a cabriole which has simple thread and flower decoration on the
cross-stretchers and pierced splats of the knee.
Pre-Chippendale type. c. 1730
A mahogany chair with high quality cabriole legs ending in ball-and-claw feet. The carved decoration on the knee makes good use of the design possibilities of shoulder support which would not be out of place on a Chippendale chair but, despite its evident quality, the back has a straight cut splat which is still in the walnut period.
c. 1740
This chair might well be criticised on the basis of the exaggerated, heavy curls to the ends of the top rail but, to those who like it, the vigour of the workmanship gives a spring-like quality to the scrolling (which looks as if it might be uncoiled given a means of softening the wood!) The back is a bit heavy but the design sources of the chair would be evident (if you have read this book, that is). c. 1735
A country chair, whose back design belongs to the examples of 1710-30, but this chair is, in fact, 1740-50 with simple square legs and stretchers of the ‘Chippendale’ type. c. 1740-1750
Finally a top quality piece in walnut with a highly individual design of back and superbly decorated cabriole legs and ball-andclaw feet. It predates Chippendale’s design by only a few years but shows clearly that richness of decoration and the overall shape were already well understood. It remained only for the designer to offer a variety of splats and personalised decorative design for his name to become the most famous in British furniture design. Much copied in the •Victorian period. c. 1750
A walnut example with a splat whose design is common to the first three chairs in this group, with slight variations. This chair is more restrained and the ankle of the cabrioles rather tentative. c. 1735