A Mahogany Sheraton Style Single Chair - Country Sheraton Design Armchair  -  Chair of the Early Regency Period

A Sheraton design chair of considerable workmanship. Many such chairs are to be found painted in white and gilt or otherwise having painted decoration on birch or beech wood. In the main the painted versions are
more highly sought after than the mahogany ones, which makes for higher prices. Note the turned and fluted legs. The arm uprights have spiral reeding.
A Sheraton design arm and single chair in mahogany. The uprights and arms are reeded, which lightens the square solidarity of design. Note the vase shaped turned arm supports and the way in which the broad top
rail is panelled. The legs and back uprights are reeded; this effect is also carried round the panel in the wider top back rail.
A simpler Sheraton design with tapering legs normally made in mahogany. The arm uprights are of straightforward turning without the spiral reeding which adds greatly to price. An elegant and simple style which remained popular for many years.
Late 18th century arm and single chairs. Note the broad top rail in the back, the panel veneered in figured mahogany. The spiral twist middle rail is a feature of quality particularly important in value assessment of these chairs. The legs are turned, without any fluting. The arms of the elbow chair sweep forward and curve down to meet the line of the front legs. The proportion of these admirable smaller dining chairs makes them
extremely popular in the modern home,
Another late Georgian c. 1810 mahogany armchair, something of a combination of Sheraton and prevailing styles. The wide top back rail is veneered with a panel of figured mahogany and the centre rail is elegantly
reeded. The turning of the front legs and the arm supports, with the popular vase shape, is lightly and gracefully done. Occasionally brass stringing will be found around the inlaid back panel, which adds to the
decorative value.
A mahogany Sheraton style single chair with Gothic arching in the design of the back. The legs are tapered on the inside edge only and are reeded, as is the back. An elegant and simple chair.
A mahogany armchair of the late 18th century. An excellent example of a good quality chair, as evidenced in the reeding and lightness of design of the back. The turned legs are a little clumsier and have hints of later
things to come.
Country Sheraton design armchair in mahogany with bowed solid seat. A satisfying and simple country design of which many were made to meet the popular demand caused by the town versions.
A simpler Sheraton design with tapering legs normally made in mahogany. The arm uprights are of straightforward turning without the spiral reeding which adds greatly to price. An elegant and simple style which remained popular for many years.
Late 18th century arm and single chairs. Note the broad top rail in the back, the panel veneered in figured mahogany. The spiral twist middle rail is a feature of quality particularly important in value assessment of these chairs. The legs are turned, without any fluting. The arms of the elbow chair sweep forward and curve down to meet the line of the front legs. The proportion of these admirable smaller dining chairs makes them
extremely popular in the modern home.
Another late Georgian c. 1810 mahogany armchair, something of a combination of Sheraton and prevailing styles. The wide top back rail is veneered with a panel of figured mahogany and the centre rail is elegantly
reeded. The turning of the front legs and the arm supports, with the popular vase shape, is lightly and gracefully done. Occasionally brass stringing will be found around the inlaid back panel, which adds to the
decorative value.
Proportion and design  Figure of wood and inlays
A country Sheraton single chair in mahogany with straight legs and solid seat. The square back with vertical rails owes much to the popularity of Sheraton styles, otherwise the design comes from a straightforward 18th century construction.
A rather heavier Sheraton style mahogany country chair with drop-in seat. The broad top rail of the back has been made slightly wider than the back uprights which detracts slightly from the elegance of the style.
Otherwise the construction and tapering legs are typical.
An elegant chair of the early Regency period, with caned back and seat. The outward turn of the simulated bamboo legs is most effective and the balance is completed by the curved top rail. The seat rail and the top
rail are inlaid with stringing in the approved classical manner. Many of these chairs were made of birch or beech and then ebonised or painted. They are almost inevitably very expensive.
Lightness and elegance of design

Antique Dining Walnut and Mahogany Chairs, Regency, Victorian and George III Elbow Armchairs

A SET OF SIX WALNUT DINING CHAIRS, mid 18th century
Each with a pierced vase split and drop-in seat, on cabriole legs terminating in trifid feet.
A SET OF EIGHT EBONISED AND DECORATED ELBOW CHAIR
Each silver-painted with floral sprays and interlaced ovals with lozenges, the curved back with shaped X-framed splits, with a bowed caned seat with squab, on ring-turned tapered legs.
A MAHOGANY OPEN WING ARMCHAIR, late 19th century
With a padded undulating back and arms with moulded downswept supports, the seat on moulded square chamfered legs.
A WILLIAM IV MAHOGANY RECLINING ARMCHAIR
With a padded curved back, racketed scroll arms and seat with a sliding footrest with hinged square tapered leg supports, on inverted lotus tapered legs terminating in brass caps and castors, stamped R. Daives and
bearing a brass plate Dawe Patent, 17 Margaret Street, Cavendish Square, London.
Robert Dawes is recorded at this address between 1820 and 1839 and patented his “Improved Recumbent Chair” in 1827, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, Maney, 1986.
A REGENCY EBONISED ARMCHAIR
With a padded scroll back, arms and seat on line decorated sabre legs with castors.
A PAIR OF VICTORIAN ARMCHAIRS
Each with a moulded open back and C-scroll horizontal sprat, with scroll arms and padded serpentine seat, on cabriole legs.
A GEORGE III MAHOGANY DINING CHAIR
The angled arched back bound by a laurel garland and with an acanthus scroll lyre splat, with a padded bowedseat, on turned fluted tapered legs.
With a pierced fret-carved top and interlaced blind fret-carved tapered and stiff-leaf column, on foliate splayed tripod supports with pad feet.
A LATE VICTORIAN MAHOGANY ARMCHAIR
The shaped acanthus-carved back with a rocaille cresting and pierced interlaced vase splat, with outswept scroll arms and padded serpentine seat, on hipped C-scroll cabriole legs terminating in acanthus scroll feet.
A VICTORIAN WALNUT ARMCHAIR
With a padded curved arched back and bowed seat, on ring-turned tapered legs with castors, stamped Gowtan & Sons, Oxford St. London.
Cowtan & Sons, successors to the firm  of J. Duppa are listed as house decorators, painters, paperstainers, upholsterers and cabinet makers and were active in the second half of 19th century and early part of this
century.
A PAIR OF GEORGE III MAHOGANY LADDER-BACK DINING CHAIRS
Each with a pierced undulating top-rail and splats, with a drop-in seat, on square chamfered legs, restorations.
A PAIR OF REGENCY ROSEWOOD ELBOW CHAIRS
Each with a turned top-rail and pierced X-frame splats, with a caned bowed seat on ring-turned outswept legs.
A GEORGE III MAHOGANY ELBOW CHAIR
The back with moulded vertical splats, with a padded saddle seat, on square tapering legs, one later stretcher and part re-railed.

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: 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 the seats, and often the backs too, of most chairs.
Chairs were increasingly made in sets, comprising both arm and single chairs.
Continental (and particularly Dutch) influence was strong on all furniture. Under William and Mary, chair design was greatly influenced by the Huguenot designer Daniel Marot (p. 200).
Three most common types were:
Farthingales: Fashionable about 1615-1660. The name refers to the gap between the seat and back which presumably allowed women wearing hooped farthingale skirts to sit in relative comfort. These were probably
the earliest type of back-stool. At first, they had four matching turned legs joined by four straight and low stretchers. Upholstered seat; low, upholstered rectangular back with uprights covered in same material. Before long, the front legs only were turned back, the back legs being plain, square-sectioned, and slightly splayed. Back raked. Baluster turning replaced about 1650 by bobbin and twist.
Oak dining-chairs: About 1650-1700, many of ‘country’ appearance, but not necessarily of provincial manufacture.
Yorkshire/ Derbyshire chairs, mid to late-18thC.
Regional variations though, the most distinctive being the ‘Yorkshire and Derbyshire’ chair. Despite its name, made in other areas too. Generally square seats, rimmed around the edge. Back with vertical or horizontal slats, sometimes carved. Often a shaped or scrolling top rail. Turned legs at front. After 1660, a new stretcher arrangement became apparent. The plain back, and turned or carved front stretchers, were set higher than before with two stretchers at either side. This type was quickly superseded in fashionable London (and soon elsewhere) by:
canework chairs: First introduced to Britain about 1665. Inexpensive and common, made in large numbers for all types of houses. At first, a squarish seat and back with large gap between. Widely spaced canework. All uprights and stretchers fashionably twist, occa-sionally bobbin, turned. Back uprights ending in finials. Flat arms, slightly shaped. ‘H’ stretchers introduced with additional and higher stretcher at front and back.
In 1670, the height of the back increased. The back top rail was formed as carved cresting, complemented by deep, carved front stretcher. Framing of the back also carved. Swept arms, scrolling over the uprights,
which were still continuous with the legs. S-scrolls sometimes appeared in the design of front legs and increasingly on the front stretcher and framing of the canework on the back. This could be one or two rectangular panels, occasionally an oval.
After 1685, backs grew taller and narrower, with turned column uprights, sometimes fluted. Mesh of canework finer. Cresting sat on, rather than between, the uprights and sometimes matched the front stretcher. Seats smaller, supported on S-scroll and baluster-turned legs, fashionably ending in an inward-scrolling ‘Braganza’ foot, a Spanish feature. Front stretcher often of Dutch bow form.
During the 1690s, caning on back was often replaced by openwork carving and an upholstered seat. Sometimes a serpentine X-frame stretcher, close to the ground and supported on bun feet with tapered legs above and inverted cup knees. Alternatively, the carved
DUTCH IMPORTS
Many almost identical caned chairs were imported from Holland in this period and usually can be identified by thicker and shallower twist turning than English pieces; and by the absence or low position of the rear
stretcher (level with the ‘H’ stretchers). More than one type of turning may be present within a single chair.
front stretcher was set back several inches and tenoned into side stretchers. Legs sometimes formed as broad S-scrolls. Cabriole legs began to appear around 1700.
Oak, walnut. Cheaper beech sometimes used for painted or japanned chairs.
Tenoned joints until about 1685. Thereafter, cresting dowelled on to up-rights and seat dowelled on to legs at front. Chairs of this type made in walnut or beech may be structurally weak. Check for signs of repair.
Turning: Bobbin and twist more fashionable until about 1685, then baluster, but all types used at all times.
Carving: Mostly scrolls, flowers and foliage. By 1685 often pierced. Amorini supporting the crown (signifying the restoration of the monarchy) a popular motif for cresting, even during the William and Mary period. Found as late as 1700.
Victorian reproduction of provincial chair, with inferior carving.
1690s walnut chair of Marot type, with inverted cup knees and Dutch bow stretcher.
Generally polish. Grandest painted or gilt. Sometimes ebonised. During Restoration period fashionably japanned. Sometimes beech ‘grained’ (painted) to simulate more expensive walnut.
VALUES
Singles cheaper than armchairs. Those showing strong Dutch influence, with elaborate carving and swept arms fetch the largest sums, especially the Marot types, with upholstered seats, pierced backs. Generally
increasing in value as they get later and more elaborate.
Oak dining-chair, common from about 1660-1680.
Late-17thC chair with canework seat and back, and scrolled front legs.

CHAIRS — antique oak dining chairs, English

walnut dining chair - oak dining chairs - Carolean dining chair - Yorkshire/Derbyshire oak dining chair - 17th century oak chairs - cabriole leg black wooden wooden chairs
By the mid-seventeenth century single antique oak dining chairs instead of carved wood chair dining table upholstered came into vogue for diners other than the head of the house and his wife.  Oak chairs were similar in construction, often with vertical slats rather than panels in the back. Normally, the back uprights are of square section, whereas there is some turning on the front legs and a central, turned front cross-stretcher. These chairs did not have the same range of carving as the prestigious panelled chair.
This is a sophisticated walnut dining chair of 17th century showing Continental (mainly Dutch) influence on British post-Restoration design. This fine bold chair shows the walnut through the original ebonising, particularly on the moulded back and scrolled stretcher. c. 1670
This is an early Carolean dining chair, with a high back and solid severe back uprights but turned front legs and cross-stretcher. Vertical back slats are moulded, the top rail carved with scrolls. The back uprights end in a scroll — a feature of these chairs. c.1660-1680
A highly distinctive Yorkshire/Derbyshire oak chair with overlay detail on back, typified by two or more horizontal back rails normally incorporating down turned crescents or open circles. Turned adornments, such as the acorns seen here, applied split balusters and curved tops to the backs are also found. The back rails are almost always carved or at least incised. The entire decoration of the oak chairs is ‘above table’, presumably for show, for the bases are conventional, the occasional variation being a high rail to retain a cushion on the solid seat.
Mid-to-late 17th century oak chairs are not similar to French louis 14th chair with their animal legs, made for mahogany drop leaf tables.
Shows later design, both cabriole leg black wooden chairs in the back, which has a down curved centre in the top rail, and in the shaped centre splat which fits into a ’shoe’ at seat level which suggests a post-1710 date. While the base is similar in design to the previous examples, the turning has lost its vigour and the central decoration on the underside of the front seat rail is a later concept.

Read also about Empire style claw foot furniture chairs as well as rococo and French oak and walnut furniture walnut side chairs.