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.

American Chairs About 1790-1810
Mahogany armchairs in Hepplewhite style, Massachusetts, about 1790-1810.
The publication of Robert Adam’s neo-classical designs was delayed by the War of Independence, but by 1790, those of Hepplewhite and Sheraton were available and being interpreted by chair makers, notably John Aitken of Philadelphia (where the Journeyman Cabinet and Chairmakers’ Book of Prices appeared in 1794-5); John Seymour of Boston; Samuel McIntire of Salem; Duncan Phyfe of New York (though the latter was more subject to French Directoire influence - see p. 19S). From 1795, Baltimore became a centre for furniture that included ‘fancy’ (painted) chairs.
The Federal style is identified with the first phase of neo-classicism.
Side-chairs: I Rectangular, oval or shield-shaped backs, the splats pierced and carved; legs straight and tapered, often terminating in spade’ feet. 2 Square-framed backs with a series of vertical bars replacing the splat; straight, tapered legs. 3 After 1805, square-framed backs enclosing straight or X-shaped bars. Phyfe also used X-shaped supports in place of conventional legs for chairs and settees.
`Fancy’ chairs: Legs socketed into the seat frame, painted panels in the backs.
Easy chairs: stuffed backs and seats, tapered legs; Martha Washington chair with high back, low seat and open arms a speciality of New Hampshire.
Frame settees: Chair-back types with oval or shield shapes conjoined, on tapered legs, open arms.
Fully upholstered settees (sofas):`Camel’ backs rising to a hump, scrolled arms.
Country chairs and settees: Windsor types in greater variety and more elegant than English. Some turnings simulate bamboo.
Slat-backs include the early rocker, said to have been invented by Benjamin Franklin around 1770, but becoming general during Federal period and developing into a national institution. The Shaker communities produced two main types - the light-weight ‘Sister’s’ rocker, and the heavier ‘Brother’s’ version with mushroom tops to the arm-supports.
West Indian mahogany the principal wood, but a wide mixture of native timbers used for seat furniture meant to be painted, for instance a set of 24 oval-backed maple chairs made in Philadelphia 1796 for Elias Derby of Salem.
Chairmakers had to perfect existing methods to meet the exacting demands of the neoclassical style with its emphasis on slim proportions and purity of line. Mortise-and-tenon joints had to be cut skilfully to create the fragile oval, heart and shield shapes of the backs.
The fragility of Federal chairs has necessitated legitimate repairs to many, but this has often led to abuse. An incomplete set is knocked apart and reassembled with a number of new parts copied from the originals. Thus, three chairs magically become six - each of them 50 per cent genuine; the new parts, if detected, are explained away as replacements. Look for differences in colour, texture, craftsmanship and finish.
Shield-back chair, taken apart for repair or cannibalization.
Delicate carving of neo-classical motifs: urns, swags, paterae, formally arranged flowers. Some craftsmen practised what amount to signatures; for example, Samuel McIntire of Salem carved a trailing vine down legs of shield-back chairs. Sparing use of satinwood inlay.
Mahogany was varnished to fill the grain, sanded and waxed until the early 1800s, when French polishing was introduced. ‘Fancy’ chairs were painted in polychrome, either with conventional neo-classical motifs or, in the case of the panel-back types produced in Baltimore and New York, with romantic landscapes. Windsor chairs were often painted black or green.
Heavy demand for sets of dining-chairs keeps prices high; collect odd ones of similar design to make a harlequin set  more fun and much cheaper.
American Chairs About 1810-1840
Federal mahogany dining hair, about 1815.
Following the War of 1812, American furniture was more influenced by the French Empire style than by English Regency.
The American Empire style (see p. 275) introduced the second phase of neo-classicism an academic approach to Ancient Greek and Roman shapes as well as ornament.
Side-chairs: Greek klismos type with sabre legs, favoured in Philadelphia; less so in New York, with the exception of a few makers, in particular the highly successful Duncan Phyfe (who had changed his name from the more prosaic Fife).
`Roman’ versions with turned front legs, more popular in New York. James Madison, President at the time of the War of 1812, ordered a set designed by the architect Benjamin Latrobe for the White House.
Left, painted ‘fancy’ chair, Connecticut, about 1820-1850. Right, early-19thC rocking chair.
Hitchcock chairs: Vernacular versions of late Sheraton on turned, slightly splayed front legs with wide seats, caned or rushed  factory-produced from 1820 by Lambert Hitchcock at Barkhamsted (now Rivington), Con.
Boston rockers from 1835: Purpose-built with rolled seats and arms to correspond with the action, as distinct from slat-backs mounted on rockers.
Couches (chaises longues), ‘lounges’: Updated versions of the day-bed, based on the Greek couch, with scrolled head, asymmetrical back and either sabre or turned feet; more popular around 1820 than the settee or sofa.
Carved mahogany settle, New York, about 1800-1810.
Upholstered settees (sofas): Similar in line to the couch but with symmetrical back and scrolled arms.
Window seats: Stools with arms but no back, on high legs or scrolled ‘dolphin’ supports, fashionable from 1825.
Mahogany, maple and exotic woods for visible parts of sophisticated seat furniture; beech for upholstered seat frames; ash, beech, birch, oak, hickory, juniper, pine, elm for Windsor and other ‘country’ types. A developing textile industry made home-produced, luxurious upholstery fabrics more widely available.
During the Colonial period, apart from some not very successful attempts at sill< production, mainly in Georgia, the weaving of expensive fabrics had not been encouraged, the colonies being regarded by Britain as a profitable market for manufactured goods. Few antique chairs, couches and sofas retain their original coverings anyway, but at the time, duty-free fabrics put good upholstery within the reach of a large public, and the quantity of seat furniture now surviving is that much greater.
Sound, traditional craftsmanship until 1830, growing reliance on machinery thereafter, leading to decline in craftsmanship. Backs of side-chairs were constructed in three different ways:
Top rails: top left, turned bar between uprights top right, flat rail tenoned between uprights: above, flat top rail (tablet) set against uprights and dowelled.
Turned or hand-carved rounded bar as top rail, set between uprights, and socketed into them. 2 A flat top rail, plain carved or inlaid, set between uprights and tenoned into them. 3 Flat top rail (’tablet’) set against the uprights and dowelled into them. Although nearest to Greek original type, this is the most prone to damage.
Chairs: Pierced and fretted lyre backs; brass inlay. Mainly stringing (thin strips to accentuate the line), but also complex patterns in top rails.
Sofas: Carving of cornucopias as faces to arms, bold scrolls as supports.
Increased use of veneers on seat rails of chairs. Hardwoods French-polished. Carved details picked out in gilt. Painted decoration of neo-classical motifs, flowers, fruit and landscapes on chairs of Hitchcock type.
Sabre-legs usually dearer than turned. Armchairs good as desk chairs and as extra seating  elegant but comfortable. Never buy a chair (as many do) without sitting in it and checking for comfort, unless your interest in it is only as an object to look at.
American Chairs About 1840-1890
Settee from a suite of Renaissance revival furniture, about 1870.
With the development of railways, the established centres of production in the East lost ground to Grand Rapids, Michigan and Cincinatti, Ohio. From 1840, trade catalogues began to appear. A.J. Downing’s The Architecture of Country Houses (I st. ed. 1850) and Charles Eastlake’s Hints on Household Taste (originally English but published in Boston, 1872) were also influential.
Not one style but many, seemingly in conflict yet melding to produce an American flavour from ingredients similar to quasi-historic revivals current in Europe: Classical (’pillar and scroll’); ‘Modern French’) (rococo curves, followed by Second Empire opulence); baroque (called ‘Elizabethan’ but heavily reliant on twist legs); Renaissance (prominent at Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, 1876, with emphasis on machine-worked, trumpet-shaped turnings); Gothic (pointed arches in chair backs, cluster column legs) vied with a Japanese craze in 1870 (bamboo, real or simulated, asymmetrical frets). From this medley, it was the ‘Modern French’ styles that most affected seat furniture.
Exotic hardwoods such as rosewood, imported in growing quantities. Steam-bent, moulded laminates patented by J.H.Belter, active in New York from 1844. Cast iron used for garden and office chairs, from 1850. Moulded papier miche chairs and settees produced at Litchfield, Connecticut from 1850. Printed chintzes and cretonnes fashionable for deep-buttoned upholstery. Natural branches and roots utilized for rustic seats. Grotesque chairs assembled from buffalo horns and stag antlers.
Side-chairs: Rococo; balloon backs, open or padded. French form of cabriole legs, i.e. the under-side of leg joins seat frame with concave curve, as opposed to convex curve of 18thC English and American type. 2 ‘Louis XVI’  in reality Napoleon 111; oval back, open or padded; turned, tapered legs.
Sofa: chaise longue; love seat (sofa for two); tete-a-tete (two seats facing in opposite directions); sociable (three or four seats facing in varied directions); all heavily upholstered, usually deep-buttoned to hold padding in place over spiral springs laced to webbed platform. Many with show-wood (exposed) frames; cabriole or turned legs on castors.
Rococo rosewood settee, New York, about 1855.
‘French’ form of cabriole leg, concave curve at knee; left, American 18thC cabriole leg, convex curve.
Carved scrolls and flowers in exaggerated version of Louis XV style. Belter’s moulded, laminated wood frames elaborately pierced and hand-carved, with high crests to chairs and sofas  a style imitated in cast iron. The lavish American version of plush Second Empire (Napoleon 111) style out-frenchified the French, the turned and fluted legs hidden behind a curtain of fringe.
Woodwork varnished, French polished or ebonised with details in gilt. Travesties of Eastlake’s simple designs, purporting to be Gothic, incised with geometric patterns and ebonised. Black japanned papier mch painted with flowers and scenes in brilliant colours.
Modern French style decorative, decadent, and, some think, delightful; can be bought cheaply in tatty condition. Cast-iron garden seats worth investigating.
The cult of collecting ‘Early American’ furniture was already established by around 1880, but the supply, even then, was inadequate. In 1884, the Journal of Cabinet Making and Upholstery reported that the making of antiques has become a modern industry. These copies have now had over 100 years to mellow. The quality of many is high but the proportions, when compared with authenticated specimens, are often wrong and the decoration is overdone.

CHAIRS — country
Windsors did not have a monopoly on pleasing country chairs and designs and serious students of country chairs keep unearthing particular local examples, some of them very attractive. In addition, the nineteenth
century saw the mass-production of many satisfying designs for the enormous demand from the manufacturing towns — for house, office and institution as well as tavern. As the price of poorly made modern chairs continues to rise, so more and more people see the sense in buying chairs of age and character. Prices have therefore shot up over the last few years. This is an area of British furniture where much research is still to be done.
A type known to have been made round Oxford in the mid-nineteenth century. This example in yew wood with the usual elm seat, solidly made (the circle portion is an inch thick), is of very similar design to one drawn by Sheraton, only with the circle enlarged. Yew, of course, increases the price. c. 1850
A typical ‘kitchen’ armchair of the mid- to late-nineteenth century on turned legs, used in institutions and offices as well as homes. Usually made in birch or beech, with an elm seat and stained dark. When stripped,
often a pleasant golden brown colour. Judging by the extreme difficulty of matching up sets — the turning on the back is nearly always different — they were made over a wide area.
Mid- to late 19th century
A Mendlesham chair from the village of that name in Suffolk where the Days, father and son, worked. A superbly designed and executed example in fruitwood. The influence of Sheraton designs is strong.
Early 19th century
A typical ‘kitchen’ or institutional chair with pleasantly Gothic arched and spindled decoration in the back. Shown in several manufacturers’ catalogues and a very similar design shown by W. Smee in 1850. Made of
beech with an elm seat.
c. 1850s    A pleasant nineteenth century kitchen chair of the ‘Roman spindles’ type with robust uprights and bold turning. The half-round cuts in the underside of the top rail help to lighten the appearance. Badly
undervalued. Similar to a Worksop design.
Mid-19th century
A variant, but lacking the balance of the previous example. The debased Windsor splat seems upside-down and sagging. Not a wild success. 1880s
Another country variant which frequently turns up in East Anglia. Sheraton design is apparent.
Early 19th century
A deceptively simple little chair. It has a well dished seat and a charming horizontal splat which looks as though it should be turned and dropped slightly in this example. A good colour would make a set very desirable. 1840-1860
The ‘blade’ back has overtones of 249 but this chair is really a slightly more ornate version of 253
Early 19th century
An even more simple design. Nevertheless, there is a reeding line along the back and uprights and the seat is nicely curved.

CHAIRS — Chippendale, provincial and country
Trying to arrange such a wide array of chairs in quality order is difficult, and dating even more so. Colour is important and personal preference plays a stronger part in assessment than for London-made pieces which
can be judged against known standards. What is technically not very successful (i.e. 152) can prove very appealing to live with, hence values are surprisingly uniform. Sets of chairs of this period cost about six times the single price for a set of four, and around ten times for a set of six.
One could speculate that the splat is a mixture of Chippendale (top half) and pre-Chippendale (bottom half), but the result is successful. The top rail flows convincingly into the splat. The shell is a pleasing touch and the cabrioles are very well made. The whole effect is successful. c. 1750
Interesting provincial example. The maker has obviously seen a high quality example but has been afraid to do more than a pastiche of the splat design; rightly because his shoulder supports to the legs illustrate his
limitations. What he has got gloriously right is the broad low back and big square seat that no Victorian would ever dream of producing. c. 1760
In oak, with fully upholstered seat. The maker has a reasonable grasp of the Chippendale idea but the splat is a little too broad and the effect is flat and stiff. Nevertheless a pleasing chair. c. 1760
A frequently encountered design which one might describe as provincial rather than strict country — in other words, rather a solid, solemn effect with neither the high decoration of the city example nor the character of
the country. c. 1760    Set of six $2, 000
Made in walnut at a time when most chairs of this quality were in mahogany. The splat is very successful — no carving except some simple gouging at the ends of the top rail. The deep rounded front seat rail and the
solid but elegant cabrioles make this a fine chair. It could pass for a chair from New York State of a slightly later date, and no doubt many do. 1750

1700`s ENGLISH CHAIRS — late 17th century, lighter ‘Anglo Dutch’ designs - antique upholstered or caned chairs - oak chair with cabriole legs - small upholstered antique wooden chair claw foot- mahogany chairs - cabriole legs ebony chair in walnut
In the 1600`s lighter antique upholstered or caned chairs came into fashion. The backs were supported not by a framed panel but by cross pieces covered in leather as in the case of this `Cromwellian’ example with bobbin turned base. c. 1660
Examples such as this oak chair with cabriole legs are also found in which all the members are spiral turned and the seat and back caned. Generally structurally weak if in walnut and so the price is low. c.1760
The Dutch-inspired decorative excesses of the Restoration furniture resulted in this type of chair becoming heavily carved, as in this excellent example. But despite the mass of decoration the basic construction was still the same, except for the bold sweep of the arms. 1675
A good average example of upholstered walnut queen anne antique chair (to which castors have been added in the nineteenth century). c.1685
A more countrified cabriole legs ebony chair in walnut, none the less an interesting example for it has fine colour and shows the start of several future design trends. The centre of the top rail shows the tightly packed curve carved in the pre-Chippendale period and the simple front stretcher, the double bulge turnings found in country chairs of the early eighteenth century. The front legs end in scrolled ‘Spanish’ feet. c. 1690
Backs of the chairs became high and the construction less solid. The opportunity for highly carved decoration is still seized upon; note the exuberant front stretcher and scrolled front legs. However, the thin flat seats were dowelled into the legs and, as the wood used was often beech or walnut, they had nowhere near the strength of the earlier oak examples. This is the key to their relatively low value; many of them are unsuitable for anything other than decorative purposes.
An upholstered chair from the end of the 17th century reminds a gothic gothic. The close carved vertical splats have replaced the long panelled cane backs. Note the graceful serpentine cross-stretchers with a centre finial. The bold curve of the arms helps the fine design but is expensive on material. The seat is now upholstered. Chairs of this type were designed by Daniel Mariot. c. 1690
The high back of mahogany chairs remains as does the decorated leg support which has moved back to become a stretcher. The legs have adopted the new cabriole form as yet without much confidence. Note the awkward square section at the top and the tentative carving on the knee which is in strong contrast to the assurance of the well carved back. c.1700. Value of antique 17th centuries chairs are high and the chairs are easily identified.