Antique Cane-back Chairs
Carolean cane-back chair
Historical background
The art of twist turning and swash turning came to England from Spain and the Spanish Netherlands at the time of Charles II and revolutionized the shape of chairs, tables, stands and stools. Oak, which had previously been the dominating wood for furniture, was abandoned in favour of
Signs of authenticity
1. Walnut is particularly susceptible to worm: most chairs of this period have feet eaten away and boreholes noticeable in solid parts of timber.
2. If uprights are twist turned they all run in the same direction, not opposite, as in later Victorian copies.
3. Twists and turning are not even: hand-turning and carving is always slightly irregular in depth, and measurements differ fractionally between each twist.
4. Caning holes on seat frame and back worn, cutting through timber from tension: caning was part of the construction and as such, subject to considerable strain.
5. On arm versions, outward splay follows the line of the body: arms tenoned into fronts of back supports rather than sides.
6. Early chairs had no splay to back legs and tend to be top-heavy and unbalanced.
7. Crest rail carving deeply incised.
8. Deep patination on all parts of arms, seat and back.
Likely restoration and repair
9. Caning replaced in back and seat. Original caning was fine with star-shaped holes in weave. Modern caning has diamond-shaped holes.
10. Seat frame strengthened with blocks on inside corners.
11. Ornate crest rails and front stretchers may have been replaced, repaired.
12. Cane seat and back replaced with upholstered panel.
13. Caned backs replaced with carved panels; seats of wood.
walnut which was ideal for turning and carving. Many of these chairs were, however, quite successfully made in oak, although the carving on the ornate crest rails was not as crisp and as detailed. The whole design reflected the Continental taste for greater ornament and elegance, so typical of the Restoration period.
Because the cane back and seat weakened the construction of chairs, additional H-shaped stretchers gave added strength, as did a central stretcher between the back legs set on a level with the elaborately carved front rail. Later, as backs became exaggeratedly high in the William and Mary period and scrolled legs were set at an angle, X-stretchers joined the legs, sometimes with a small central finial. These chairs were often known as periwig’ chairs because the extreme height of their back seemed to mimic one of the fashionable hairstyles of the period.
Construction and materials
The best examples of these chairs were made in solid English walnut which was close-grained and far less liable to split when heavily carved and decorated. They were also made in oak with less decoration owing to the coarser grain of the wood, and in beech, painted and gilded. The cane back to the seats was usually square in English chairs and oval in Dutch designs.
On chairs without arms, the front legs continue above the seat to form ornamental bosses designed to hold a loose cushion, and from c.1670 most chairs with arms were also made to have cushions on their seats, with the lower seat rail set correspondingly high so as to be seen above the level of the cushion.
From c.1690, the construction suffered in favour of ornament, and crest rails were often simply pegged to the tops of the chairs between
Variations
Country versions were usually made in oak, but are sometimes to be found in mixtures of fruitwood and walnut, plane and sycamore, usually less ornately carved. They have wooden or rush seats and straight slatted backs, a raised bottom back rail for strength, and simple carving on the crest rail. The seats are often dished to take a cushion. They were also made with double stretchers on three sides, with a simple turned decorative stretcher in front. Another variation of later date has plain
the uprights. Front legs of single chairs were pegged into the undersides of seats – a construction which was hardly robust.
Detail
The crest rail, as its name implies, was originally heraldic and the carving varies from a fairly simple combination of ‘S’ and ‘C’ scrolls to the most intricate and ornate pierced work, of which the amorati – two little boys holding up a crown between them – is probably the best known. Carved and scrolled arms are also a common feature, but only the grandest chairs have scrolled feet. The majority of pieces have block feet, sometimes with a turned bobbin (usually worn or cut off) below. Reel-and-bobbin turning to stretchers, arm supports and even back supports is not unusual, though twist turning is commoner.
turned front legs, double side stretchers, a plain slatted back and a rush seat.
Left: late seventeenth century, high-backed chair, with simple G scrolled crest rail, bobbin and baluster turning and rush seat. Centre: Carolean, with delicate ‘boyes and crown’ crest rail. Oval cane panel may suggest Flemish origin.
Right: William and Mary stained beechwood armchair.
Reproductions
Nineteenth century
The most common are Victorian, in a mixture of early designs and later versions, with X-stretchers and a Flemish scroll on the crest rail. Another version has
upholstered seat and back panel, often in Berlin woolwork, with twist-turned uprights, scrolled feet and twist-turned legs and stretchers. The over-sleek,
slightly greenish-coloured copies of the periwig chair are a
familiar sight, with a lower
back, caned back panel and splayed back legs. They were first made in the Victorian
period, and have been
reproduced many times since.
Price bands
Walnut, c.1680, £1,500-2,250 pair.
Continental, c.1680, £1,000-1,500 pair.
Rush-seated country chairs, £300-400 each.
High-backed beechwood, £300-400 each.
Nineteenth-century reproduction, £50 75.
Tags: Antique, back chair, Cane, cane seat, Chair, CHAIRS, charles ii, construction, English, furniture, oak, oval, restoration, restoration period, Spanish, stool, stools, stretcher, stretchers, twist, walnut, wood