CHAIRS — children’s high
Here of course, one cannot judge a chair by its correctness of proportion as against the adult equivalent. Instead the test has to be how successfully the maker has elongated the piece while keeping in sympathy with the style of his period.
In this fine child’s oak chair the maker has got it just right. The design calls for stability and he has achieved it without losing the feel of the heavy panelled back. The simple turning on the front legs and the low stretcher work very well. As these chairs were very popular before the war one should always look at them very closely. Second quarter 17th century .
At first sight a late seventeenth century style but the outline of the splat and the shape of the turning suggest a later date. Lacks the stability and balance of the previous example, but then chairs of this period,
dependent on turning, were rather square. Arms are good. 1690-1720.
A Hepplewhite design in which the back with its careful moulding and well-balanced splat is much more successful than the heavy front legs. The sweep outwards at the bottom gives an improved line. c. 1780
A strange crude little high chair which gives problems of dating. The dished seat suggests a Windsor chair origin but the scratch moulding and the crude little inset cross pleads for an earlier date. The top rail argues for an early nineteenth century date, as does the exaggerated chamfering of the side rails. Probably early 19th century.
(far right) Very much the traditional Windsor design, good rake to back legs gives feeling of solidarity. The back is well made and the splat fits in well. Early 19th century.
Very appealing little piece, partly because it is a child’s chair but also because of the generous sweep of the arms. Well turned front legs, the only drawback is the absence of a splat.

CHAIRS — children’s low
Very well made walnut child’s chair. Gloriously successful cabrioles, arms, legs and back. Only possible fault is that the back should perhaps be a fraction higher to be in proper proportion, but this is a very minor quibble about a superb piece. c.1720
An early eighteenth century child’s country chair; from the photograph it looks as though the right hand arm and the top rail are oversized, but again this is a minor point, for the overall proportions are excellent. c.1730
Children’s chairs naturally follow the same styles as those of their parents and one assesses them in the same way. The acid test is that if one sees a photograph without background it should not be obvious that it is a miniaturised version. Making a miniature in the correct proportions is extremely difficult and requires a very good maker to get them just right. As chair making itself is one of the most difficult arts, a good child’s chair calls for a top craftsman.
To generalise on prices, fine town made examples of earlier types tend to fetch less then their adult equivalent while children’s versions of country or late chairs fetch more.
Again the work of a competent maker, this Mendlesham chair can only be detected as a child’s because the arms are a trifle thick and pinched inwards. A very rare and desirable piece. c.1820
An endearing child’s Windsor rocking chair in ash. More simply made than the last example. The arms are a bit crude at the ends and the spindles have been tapered off slightly too much. 1820-1860
Ignore the fact that about 2ins. are missing from the bottom of the legs and holes drilled to provide support for a foot rest and this Hepplewhite example is another top quality piece. Look at the carefully moulded back, carved honeysuckle decoration and the excellent curve of the arms. c. 1770
A sweet little yew Windsor missing about an inch off the bottom of its feet. It has a slight Gothic appearance purely because the top rail would not bend so it cracked. Yew does not take kindly to tight curves.

CHAIRS — balloon back
The nineteenth century saw the development of many new styles of which the dominant one from 1840-1880s was the balloon back with cabriole and turned legs. The evolution is clear but one has only to look at The Pictorial Dictionary of 19th Century Furniture Design to see how style persisted, often over several decades. Confusion on dating is therefore very easy. Prices are for sets of six.  Single examples range from $40 — 70.
The back rail is thin and no longer straight but the decoration on the splat still harks back to William IV (late Regency) as does the drop-in seat and decoration on the legs. c. 1835
Shows a simulated rosewood Regency bedroom chair made of beech in which the splat has developed and an early form of ballooning is evolving. This light and elegant chair contrasts sharply with the late ones.
Set of six each.
A later heavier type with solid turned legs and rather clumsy decoration on the splat. c. 1870
Almost a balloon back but not quite, nevertheless a good design with moulded edges to the legs as well as inside the back.
In walnut with a warm colour not obvious from the photograph. The slight shaping on the top and the small carved supports give the chair an elegant look. c.1850
The later mechanical applied groove decoration and a very simple splat, the legs are pinched (see Agius). The price is relatively high because many people simply do not differentiate between quality. c. 1880
Still a very good chair with an intricate splat which is in its favour, but less style than the previous example. c. 1850
Chairs  show how the balloon shape could infect other chairs of the period, even papier mach& as in 200. Note the difference between the Victorian idea of cabriole and that of the early eighteenth century; the former is bandy legged by comparison. 1860. Set of six.
Moving down the scale, a simple splat and a not entirely successful attempt at decoration just above. The legs lack some of the elegance of the previous examples. c. 1850. If back broken — forget.

CHAIRS — turned leg, 1800-1840
The turned leg chairs of the 1800-1840 period derive from late Sheraton and other, usually classical, design influences of the period. Whereas the overall shape is clearly recognisable, an infinite variety of decorative
designs were used and it is again very difficult to range the quality of the enormous output.
A fine quality example with reeded arms and back. The top rail is also reeded and the legs reasonably restrained as far as the turning goes. 1810
Another restrained chair of simple, quite elegant design. c. 1825 Set of six
This chair shows how the legs can become over-turned to the point of weakness. The violently striped covering is not, of course, contempory. 1835
An elegant later chair with fine quality work in the back and the expected reeded legs of William IV origin. c. 1835
Almost the classic dealer’s mahogany dining chair of the late Georgian-Regency period. The arms now reach out to curve straight down into the front legs. The back centre rail is twist-turned and there is an inlaid brass stringing line in the top back rail.
A humbler example, where the legs are still elegant but the top rail of the back is wider and starting to grow into the heavier broad rail of the later part of the period. c. 1820
The broad top rail has started to be embellished by the Victorians, who were busy deciding to throw off such restraint as the severe straight tops of the previous examples, thus leading to 189. c. 1840
This chair shows how events can take an unpleasant turn, with front legs becoming bulbous and unnecessary cross-stretchers appearing. c. 1835
The rule for giving an approximate value for a set is to increase the single price as follows:
Here the top rail has broken out into a rebellion of a decidedly dashing nature. c. 1830-40
This design ran concurrently with the early balloon back and fits in well with cabrioles.  c. 1850    Set of six.

CHAIRS — country, Northern England
These chairs fall into distinct categories and can normally be allocated to various parts of the country. Basically, they are either ladderbacks, with or without a top rail, or backs made up of vertical spindles. A great deal of research has been and is being carried out on this subject. For more information see an article by Bill Cotton, who has studied this subject in depth, on ‘Country Chairs’, Antique Collecting Vol.8, No.6.
From left to right, top to bottom-Wavy line ladderbacks. A similar chair is in a Hogarth print c.1730. There are a number of variations of these Yorkshire chairs which are hardwearing and generally considered the best of the type.
1730-1800    Armchair
A variation from the Midlands, missing half its top rail. Again, good quality but the back design is perhaps not quite as well balanced as the first example.
1740-1830    Set of two  six
The Macclesfield variation of the second category. Again the rush seat comes over the front rail as with all chairs of this type. 1740-1840
The Wigan shape of ladderback is again seen on these wooden seated top-rail types with shaped front rail. A carver is very seldom found. 1760-1840
The third main type, the spindlebacks predominantly from north Cheshire and south Lancashire. It is thought that the further north the chairs were made in Lancashire the thinner the spindles. Another variety has two lines of spindles with a top rail between the uprights often with some Chippendale design feature on it. They are lighter and are thought to come from Liverpool and Manchester. 1750-1840
Quite a different variety coming from Ormskirk or the Preston area of Lancashire. Very robust. 1840-1900

CHAIRS — cabriole leg, low back
The lower back chairs are normally associated with the George I period. Certainly the design settled down around the 1720s and carved decoration became increasingly used.
A good George I example. The seat rail is much deeper than those of the previous section and the back is lower. The carved shell is hipped into the seat and the top rail is scooped into a definite hollow in the middle.
The top rail is also more rounded in appearance and the distinction between it and the back uprights more difficult to define, as they flow into each other. The flat face of the uprights, splat and seat rails are veneered
for decoration. c. 1725    Single $2,500 — 3,500 Pair $8, 000 — 12, 000
This very fine chair with the shepherd’s crook arms has superb cabrioles with hipped decoration on the knee, ball-and-claw feet and despite the low back, superb movement. A collector’s dream. c.1720
A country version with the fashionable low front (not always a pot cupboard), a veneered back splat and firmly fixed shepherd’s crook arms. c.1720
A lesser quality chair on which the shell carving on the knee has an almost stuck-on appearance and looks out of place. Note that the chair is made of solid walnut and features no veneer, although the face of the back uprights is flat, as though to be veneered. See how material has been saved in producing the shaped back uprights — the lower inward curve of the left hand back upright is a different piece of wood joined to the main upright: the lighter colour betrays it. c. 1720
A mahogany high quality chair with carved decoration — see how the curving back uprights end in eagles’ heads where they meet the top rail. Cuban mahogany encouraged a revival in the carver’s art. Notice too that
the seat has become larger and generally more solid. A move towards Chippendale. 1730-1740
A fruitwood chair with rounded back uprights rather like chairs from the previous section. It has a rather country appearance despite the quality of the cabrioles and back splat, which is quite sophisticated. c.1730
Although this chair has lost its front feet, it illustrates a stretchered type with flat-faced back uprights, the whole chair being made in solid walnut. It has little of the curvature of the back which the chairs in the previous section show, although akin to them below the seat level. Note that the shoulder piece is missing on the right hand cabriole. c.1735

Sabre Leg Chairs
While variations in quality obviously exist, chairs with sabre legs do not go through the same gradations as previous types, perhaps because the country makers instinctively avoided them, mindful of the structural
weakness implied in the sabre leg, which must be cut across the grain at some point. The scrolling arms, with their wide radius, suffer from the same inherent weakness. As a result, there are some very fine examples and the rest tend to be of good ‘town’ quality of execution. Those with brass inlay are considered the most valuable.
CHAIRS — sabre leg, 1800-1840
A fine quality example with rope-twist top rail and carved decoration. c. 1825
Shows the same features of quality —rope-twist, etc. — with the addition of brass inlay. c. 1825
The thickening of the back top rail and the slightly heavy legs and arm supports suggest a provincial origin.
c.1830
An interesting carved key pattern decoration in top rail. c.1820
A much broader top rail than the previous chair with leaf form carving. c. 1825 The heavy rail is gadrooned at the top but brass inlay is clearly visible. c. 1820
Probably about the simplest form of period sabre leg chair in mahogany, unpretentious and pleasing. c. 1825
In contrast to the previous chair this one has gone rather towards the Victorian, in the exuberance of its carved top rail which has hints of the early balloon-back. c. 1830
A Regency sabre leg library step-chair in its open and closed positions. This type produced by Morgan and Sanders, c.1810 and illustrated in Ackermann’s Repository of Arts, 1811.

CHAIRS — Hepplewhite
Hepplewhite designs are found along with Sheraton in the 1775-1790 period. They were both influenced by classical designs —a search for elegance. The main Hepplewhite forms are shown in this section.
A camel back design with 9 serpentine front and drop-in seat. The legs are Chippendale in form except that they now taper instead of being the same size throughout their length. The splat is reminiscent of Chippendale and so are the small leaf carvings on the top rail. What could be the start of the Prince of Wales plumes (which Hepplewhite was possibly the first to use on chairs) are to be seen halfway up the splat — an elegant chair.
c.1775    Set of six $6, 000 — 8, 000
A fine chair almost straight out of Hepplewhite’s design book but not a style normally associated with him. A high quality chair with tapering fluted legs, arms and back uprights. Leaf and swag carving in the square back are all classical motifs. (Just as Sheraton shows the shield back so Hepplewhite shows several of these square back designs.) c. 1780
A very good quality shield back chair. The Prince of Wales plumes and their supports are beautifully carved. The shield itself has a raised section at the edges which serves to emphasise the shape. This is repeated on
the legs. c. 1780
Set of six $7, 000 — .0, 000 Six  two $12, 000 — 16, 000
The legs are plain tapered, but the well shaped and moulded shield back, the balanced arrangement of the splat and the carved decoration mark it as a chair of some quality but it clearly does not come up to the
standard of the previous example.
Another Hepplewhite variation, the hoop back. Note the continued use of the Chippendale moulding but on a well tapered leg. The hoop-back is decorated with carving and the splat, which is typical of the type, fits the
hoop well. A successful chair. c.1790
A shield back design. There is a striking contrast between the well carved splat with the Prince of Wales plumes and the dumpy legs which appear to taper too quickly (compare the last example). The lack of any
decoration on the shield which is slightly awkward looking suggests a provincially made piece. c.1785
An interesting comparison with example 161. It is more Hepplewhite in that the legs taper. But the splat is a near disaster: the outline is not true, the lower half is mean and its design poor. Most marked, however, is
the contrast between the way 161 is successfully terminated at the top of the cuts in the splats and the way this fails.
A painted example of another popular Hepplewhite design and one which was extensively copied in late Victorian times. The quality of the painting determines the price. c. 1790

The camel back is there, the splat works well and the bottom half is Chippendale. A rather stiff little provincial chair but the outcome is successful, particularly if the patination is good.c. 1790-1810  Shows a much simpler treatment avoiding the use of any carving. The legs are now quite simple with no reeding or moulding. c.1810Shows a provincial interpretation of Sheraton design incorporating what might be thought of as a very simplified adaptation of the honeysuckle motif. Rather thick, squat and heavy with the back marginally small for the bulk of the seat.A country interpretation in beech or oak with drop-in seat and a simply formed decoration of horizontal splats. 1810
The simple country `Sheraton’ with dished solid wooden seat and stretchers. Decoration is confined to moulding lines with a veneered piece of mahogany in the centre of the splat. 1810
Before the end of the Georgian-Regency era a profusion of chair designs appeared which seems to indicate an explosion in production. It thus becomes more difficult to classify chairs by quality although certain obvious features can be identified.

Sabre-leg chair

Thomas Hope, connoisseur and dilettante, is credited with the original concept of this radical design, but it was George Smith, cabinet-maker and furniture-maker who simplified the neoclassical shape and made the flush-sided chair a practical
Signs ofauthenticity
1. In solid wood, cut across the grain on the side frames so that at no point is the grain running at an angle of more than 45′.
2. Back rail and crest rail tenoned inside back frame supports.
3. Seat frame flowing in continuous line from crest rail to legs.
4. Upholstered seat contained within seat frame, not
overstuffed.
5. Decoration, stringing, brass inlay, flush with surface and silhouette.
6. On chairs with arms, arm supports in counter-curve to front legs, often with scrolling at armrest.
7. Arms follow precise curve of seat and back frame, finishing flush into front of back support.
8. On chairs with arms, upholstered seat contained within seat frame and arms.
9. Front legs with more pronounced forward curve than back curve of back legs.
10. All legs square-sectioned, unstretchered.
Likely restoration and repair
11. Caned seats replaced with upholstery, covering front seat rail.
12. Legs broken, split and
pinned - most vulnerable point just below knees of front legs. Examine grain closely for
repairs.
13. Back supports broken and repaired. Both these points may not detract from appearance but considerably weaken structure.
14. Decorative brass rosettes on sides of knees, seat frame
junction with back legs - may conceal pinning or repair.
15. Attractive if incongruous carving on front legs other than reeding. Probably conceals a partly replaced leg.
commercial proposition. Its lines derive from Ancient Greek and Egyptian rather than the Adam `classical’ and it represented the height of the Regency taste for unbroken lines and severe curves. Probably the most well-known design – certainly the most copied and reproduced – is the `Trafalgar’ chair, with a rope-twist incorporated into the crest rail or back rail, made to commemorate Nelson’s victory.
There had been many technical advances in furni making by the end of the eighteenth century. Steam-driven machinery, bonding, laminating and veneer-cutting , all had a considerable influ on furniture design. There also a far greater scientific understanding of weight and stress. The flush-sided chair remarkably modern construction, with the timbers cut scientifically across the grain so that the leg and side-frame were made in a single piece, bonded to the curving back and back leg in a single continuous line.
Construction and materials
This radical design was made in solid mahogany, rosewood, simulated rosewood, ebonized beech, real and simulated calamander, and, in some less costly versions, with side frames and seat rails of solid dark woods with a beech underframe. The test of a genuine flush-sided chair is that it can be laid completely flat on its side on the floor. Legs are always unstretchered, the front legs frequently have a more pronounced curve than the back legs - hence its name ’sabre leg’. The crest rail, often several inches deep, is tenoned to the inside of the back supports and does not overrun the seat frame. Chairs with flush sides and crest rails over-running the side are of later date. Seats were upholstered and curved with the side-frame. They were never overstuffed at the front, where there was always a straight seat rail joining the two high-curving knees.
In line with the fashions of the day, the sabre-legged chair was also made in a lighter construction, with a dark wood, or ebonized beech for the frame, and caned seat and back panel.
Detail
Frequently there was continuous reeding which carried from the side of the crest rail, down the top of the seat frame, over the knees and down the front of the slightly tapered square-sectioned legs. Brass inlay, stringing and decoration were flush with the surface. On arms, there is often scrolling at the end of the armrest.
Variations
These chairs required a considerable amount of technical knowledge and equipment to make, and consequently there are no country versions of this design.
The simple shape of the traditional slat back with a deep, plain crest rail and plain wooden or rush seat could probably be related to the sabre-legged chair, but it would be stretching the point. The most commonly reproduced design is the over-curving S-armed chair with matching
dining chairs, often with caned seats, and most frequently found in beechwood, ebonized or painted and gilded. Strictly speaking, these are not true flush-sided chairs, since their arms are round-sectioned and their wide crest rails usually overrun the sides.
Below left: flush-framed, c.1830. Right: cane-seated, flush-framed, c.1820. The rope-twist crest rail has been broken by a stylized decorative design.
Reproductions
Victorian
From the beginning of the Victorian period, the pure shape of the flush-sided chair became spoiled by turned front legs instead of the strict curve of the sabre leg. This was probably because the flush-sided chair was by nature expensive to make and used a considerable amount of timber to achieve the right
spring and strength to the legs.
Twentieth century
Few of the myriad variations begin to match the elegance and simplicity of the original. About 30 years ago the lyre back was very much in fashion, and a variation of the flush-sided chair was made commercially by some high-quality manufacturers, usually in ebonized beech. They proved to be far less durable than the originals, mainly because the difficult cross-cutting of the timber was skimped, and the sabre legs split where the grain ran at too acute an angle.
Modern versions of a cane-seated flush-sided chair are to be found in some high-quality department stores, made with modern techniques, probably in High Wycombe, centre of the chair-making industry in
England, where many of the originals were also made.
Price bands
Late Regency, with overrunning crest rail, £120-150 each. Set of six, £800-1,000.
Cane seat, simulated rosewood, beach frame - set of six, £.880-1,000.
S-arm chair, £250-320.
Plain mahogany - set of six, £700-900.
(Rosewood more expensive than mahogany; brass inlay also more expensive.)
William iv turned leg - set of six, £600-850.

Bentwood rocker

Bentwood chairs have become so much a part of our lives as to be almost invisible. In a simplified form they have been used in so many everyday places - shops, schools, private houses and public places - that it is difficult to imagine that their whole style was once a complete revolution in furniture-making. Today they are turned out in their thousands in factories all over
Signs of authenticity
1. Laminated wood, built up of alternately grained strips.
2. Generous curves with long unbroken sections curving under and over, rather than separate pieces joined at short intervals.
3. Taut panels caned on the diagonal to allow for the springiness of the chair.
4. Surface of wood smooth and silky, instantly recognizable once touched, compared with later solid bentwood.
5. Impeccable finish with sections shaped and smoothed to flow into the join.
6. Early solid birch bentwood chairs should be finely sanded and finished under black
I ebonized’ paint.
Likely restoration and repair
7. Laminated bentwood chairs and rockers which have been subject to too many changes in temperature and humidity will be ’sprung’ on curves, i.e. there will be splitting where the wood has shrunk and pulled away. It may be tacked and glued back into position but the damage is permanent and will occur again.
8. Recaned on the horizontal and vertical. The caning will break and the chair will not maintain its shape, but will eventually split from the strain.
9. Black paint stripped off. If this has been done by complete immersion in a caustic solution there may be some dissolving of the adhesives between laminations. Stripping must be done painstakingly by hand and there should be some small signs of remaining paint.
England, but their origins were elite and aesthetic.
Michael Thonet (1796-1871),
their inventor, was an Austrian who trained as a craftsman in the South German Biedermeier school of furniture-making. This was established as a reaction against French influence, in part motivated by the aspiration for a united Germany after the Napoleonic Wars, and in part aesthetic, a search for well-designed ‘bourgeois’ furniture. The parallel desire was felt in England, and was evident in the designs of J. C. Loudon and his school. Biedermeier was particularly successful with seat furniture, which was solid, well-made, elegant and, above all, comfortable. It was Michael Thonet’s search for new materials and techniques to
make chairs without ornament, carving or traditional construction that led him to experiment with the shipbuilding techniques of steaming and bending wood. His designs were first produced in laminated wood in the 1840s.
Thonet took out patents for his chair-making techniques, but when the patent ran out in the 1860s a London firm of furniture-makers, Hewlett and Company, took it up, and by the end of the century bentwood chairs were being made by many furniture-makers, particularly in High Wycombe, centre of England’s chair-making industry.
Construction and materials
Michael Thonet’s original designs were made in thin strips of wood, steamed and bent into shape and laminated together - a technique which had been known in England for about 100 years, although laminated wood had only been used for parts of furniture and not for a whole piece. Thonet’s first commission for these novel, smooth-curving designs was for the Leichtenstein Palace in Vienna, and although they were more detailed and complicated in their sinuous construction, the basic bentwood chair of today differs very little from those prototypes.
In England, the technique of steaming and bending wood had been applied to Windsor chairs for some years, using solid wood as
Variations
Bentwood chairs were particularly suitable for children, and both high chairs and small, miniature versions of the standard shape were made, particularly in the 1920s, for use in schools and nurseries.
Some early, finely designed, bentwood chairs made in England include versions of the sabre-legged S-armed chair, with the back made in a single hoop with the back legs, which are raked well back. Front legs curved forward in imitation of the line of the sabre-leg, but were round-sectioned and taper-turned. The S-curve of the arms was particularly suitable for the new bentwood technique.
Once furniture-making factories had begun to turn out bentwood chairs by the thousand, their finish and style degenerated into the ‘tearoom chairs’ of the 1920s and 1930s, being reduced to circular hoops and slightly splayed legs, whose timber was no longer carefully chosen for the correct grain, and which have since split and cracked.
opposed to laminated. The timber was generally birch, traditional wood for chair-legs because it was amenable to bending and was springy enough not to break or split. The cane seat, too, had been in production for country chairs and lightweight seat furniture ever since Sheraton had reintroduced it at the end of the eighteenth
century.
Early genuine Thonet bentwood chairs and rockers, for which the technique was particularly
suitable, were more curvaceous and elaborate, mainly due to the laminated wood which allowed more freedom than later bentwood chairs in birch, which consisted mainly of a series of hoops and standardized curves.
Reproductions
After a considerable spell of unpopularity as ‘cheap chairs there are now many extremely good reproductions of the original bentwood chair on the market, many of them originating in Taiwan and the Far East, where manufacturing is cheap and labour still skilled in traditional crafts such as caning. Their reappearance on the English scene can largely be attributed to the many well-designed small restaurants with imaginative decor, for which they were originally imported.
Price bands
Superb intricate shapes, top condition with original labels and original, unshipped
finish, £850-1,000.
Stripped or plain, simpler shapes with original label, £550-850.
Set of six chairs, original caning and labels, £350-500.
Period singles with labels and authentication, 135–50.
1920s plain but in good condition, £15-20.
Above: a child’s bentwood high chair, c.1870.
Right: an original Thonet, c.1860.