18th Century Antique English Upholstered Chairs
CHAIRS: UPHOLSTERED
About 1720-1840
Queen Anne side-chair, about 17.30.
Surviving upholstered chairs made for drawing-room use date mostly from after 1720 and, although originally made in sets, are more often found today in pairs, or even singles.
Many resemble contemporary dining-chairs in the design of legs and stretchers and the general shape of arms, but have fully upholstered seats (sometimes with a show-wood rail), fully or partly upholstered backs and mostly open arms with padded rests. Some (particularly those with cabriole legs) will have shaped and carved rear legs - a sign of high quality.
Most common types:
Mid-18thC side-chair with fine pierced stretchers.
Side-chairs (without arms), about 1720-1770: Straight, flat, upholstered backs, often with slightly rounded corners. Occasionally serpentine top around 1750.
Spoon-back or ‘Compass-seated’ chairs, about 1720-1740: Shepherd’s crook arms, cabriole legs, waisted ’spoon’ backs.
Chippendale style, about 1750-1775: Low, square backs and broad, square seats. Either ‘French’ with undulating seat rails, scrolled arms, cabriole legs (the grandest are highly carved and sometimes gilded with separate ‘escutcheon’ back) or ‘Gainsborough’ with straight legs and stretchers, arm supports sweeping down from rest to front of seat. May have Gothic or chinoiserie carved detail.
Neo-classical Adam-type, about 17701800: Often highly carved and painted or gilded. Oval backs, arms usually sweeping down to meet turned and fluted or reeded legs; curved and shaped seats. Seat rails were also often reeded, interspersed with paterae and so on.
`French Hepplewhite’, about 1775 to 1800: Delicate version of French rococo armchairs, often with a shaped back separate from the seat.
Regency forms, about 1800-1830: French Empire type with continuous rounded backs
forming arms and sabre legs. Or, distinctive continuous U-shaped seat and arms with plain, low, rectangular back.
Walnut, mahogany; rosewood during Regency. Beech when painted or gilded (mostly from 1770 onwards) and for underframes.
Standard methods employed. See full details on p. 57-59.
Upholstery is unlikely to be original throughout. The number of empty tack holes in the frame may indicate the extent of former upholstery. Remember that correctly shaped padding and authentic reproductions of
textiles and trimmings of the right date will greatly enhance a chair’s appearance (and maybe increase its value). Perfectionists would advocate the use of traditional upholstery techniques and materials, too.
As for side-chairs, but often more elaborate and extensive carving.
Polish, paint, gilding.
Mostly in the lower half of four-figure sums, decreasing with younger age. The grandest, highly carved and gilded chairs with good provenance, are at a premium. Period upholstery if in usable condition (particularly needlework and tapestry) -will add considerably to the value.
Left mahogany ‘Gainsborough, armchair, about 1760-1770.
Right, neo-classical gilded drawing-room chairs in the style of Robert Adam.
Armchair in ‘French Hepplewhite style.
The introduction of the coiled spring for upholstery in the late 1820s brought greater comfort and a more rounded appearance to padding. A great variety of upholstered furniture became available, often sold in suites comprising a sofa, or chaise longue, a pair of easy chairs (one gentleman’s, with arms; one lady’s, without) and six side-chairs.
The majority were in a curvaceous rococo style, with moulded show-wood frames, rounded and waisted ’spoon’ backs and short.
Armchair with continuous ous curves from arm to foot,
scrolling cabriole legs. Arms, when present, formed as one continuous scroll with front leg, bulging over the knee and ending in ball-like ‘French’ scroll feet. Low seats; deep naturalistic carving on knees and centre of
top and front seat rails. Always on castors, sometimes of white or brown porcelain (a post-1850 feature). Distinctive convex curve evolved for slightly outward-splaying back legs.
Later spoon-backs (post 1870) may have straight, turned legs.
Occasionally a separate padded oval back supported on carved, inward-curving extensions of back legs.
Squared-up versions with straight, turned legs and arched backs appeared around 1860, becoming increasingly heavy with carving of classical rather naturalistic nature. Deep mouldings replaced by incised lines.
Variations abounded after 1880, their only common features being straighter contours.
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Tags: armchair, armchairs, cabriole legs, chinoiserie, Chippendale, chippendale style, contemporary dining chairs, french empire, front seat, Gothic, HEPPLEWHITE, mahogany, oval, Queen Anne, Regency, rococo, rosewood, Shepherd, side chairs, Upholstered, upholstered chair, Upholstered Chairs, upholstery