CHAIRS  reproductions, 1880-1930
The return to 18th century styles in the 1880s affected chairs almost more than other furniture. Chippendale, Sheraton and Hepplewhite chairs were produced in varying grades of quality and exactitude. Queen Anne cabriole legs with ‘fiddle’ backs soon followed and, of course, the medieval oak craze had to be met by chair makers …
A mahogany ‘Chippendale’ chair of some considerable quality. The carved splat is of Gothic style in its origins and the scrolled cabriole legs end in ball-and-claw feet. It is still unmistakably Victorian, however, from its slightly narrow proportions. 1880-1900
A highly-carved ‘Chippendale’ chair with a wool-work tapestry seat. The narrow proportions, particularly of the back, proclaim it to be Victorian. The cabriole legs, which are elegantly carved, show that incipient bandyness and weakness at the ankle which are also characteristic.
A mahogany ‘Chippendale’ chair with a back of c,uite faithful reproduction. The seat is, however, smaller than the original would have been and the seat rai. has been made the same width as the legs. The original would have been more likely to have a deeper seat rail even if the legs were of the same proportions.
A mahogany ‘Chippendale’ ladderback chair with carved pierced rails to the back, which is well executed. The seat and the square legs are, again, small and thin compared with the 18th century original; the seat rail is not deep enough.
Typical mass-produced ‘Chippendale’ style chairs with rexine (imitation leather) covered drop-in seats. No problems of confusion with the originals here; both ‘carvers’ and single chairs are of proportion and dimensions well away from the 18th century. The Gothic style back splat is quite a good copy of an original design. 1890-1930
A mahogany `Hepplewhite’ chair of very good proportion, on moulded square tapering front legs. The back is a variation of the shield back, curved in shape with carving on the rails. The seat is full and bold, serpentine-shaped at the front and worthy of the original.
A classic shield-back ‘Hepplewhite’ chair with carved Prince of Wales’ feathers in the back design. The tapering square legs and slightly bowed seat are copied faithfully from the original and the proportion is good. A well-made chair like this was very much more expensive than a mass-produced, thin ‘Chippendale’ design  about nine guineas for this as against one and a half for the mass-produced item.
A mahogany wheel-back ‘Hepplewhite’ chair of good proportion and workmanship. The carving of the back is a considerable achievement and, with wear, and without sight of the unpolished areas, such chairs can be difficult to tell from an original period chair. 1890-1920, but could be made even now
A mahogany arm chair in Sheraton style with inlaid boxwood stringing lines as decoration. There is also an inlaid oval satinwood and marquetry panel in the broad top rail. These panels were available ready-made by machine from the trade.
Not quite Sheraton and not quite Edwardian ‘own brand’, these small chairs still owe more to the late 18th and early 19th century than to the 1900-1910 period in which they were made. The back is a Sheraton design-book copy and the tapering square legs end in block feet. 1890-1910
An example of the mahogany ‘Queen Anne’ style of dining chair which had a great vogue from around 1900 to 1940. They do not seek to emulate original Queen Anne period chairs too closely  these examples are usually mahogany or stained to look like it, and mahogany was not used in quantity until after 1730  and they are mass-produced in unmistakably economic ways, so there is little problem in differentiating them from the originals.
Elegant mahogany chairs based on a Queen Anne design and of a shape quite popular in the early 20th century. The front legs are an English variation on the cabriole, usually associated with country makers. The back curves are restrained without being stiff. The central panel of the back is caned and the pincushion seat is covered with a striped tapestry. Intended as an occasional chair but would now be sold for dining.
Four more variations on the popular `Jacobean’ chair theme, with pincushion seats covered in rexine (an imitation leather). More expensive than the previous examples because the stretchers between the legs are turned as well, not just left square for cheapness. The pair on the right have abandoned the twist turning normally used and have turned pillar supports capped by finials instead. (The rather elaborately carved top rail was not popular on post-1920 versions.) 1890-1920
Typical ‘Jacobean’ chairs, in oak, of a type also very popular from 1890-1940, made to go with the bulbous-legged refectory-style table of the ‘Jacobethan’ dining room. Twist turning is the key to these chairs which owe their form to the second half of the 17th century.
The end of the line for the ‘Jacobethan’ style. An oak chair with twist turning in prominent places and cheap square sections elsewhere. The drop-in seat is covered in rexine.
An oak arm and a single chair in ‘Carolean’ style with caned back and seat panels. They are fairly faithful reproductions of chairs of the Restoration period of 1680-1690, showing the elaborately-carved scrolled front stretcher between the front legs echoed in the top rail of the high back. They would be detected by the lack of age and wear apparent in them, and by their colour. Such chairs were originally made of birch, beech, oak or walnut and stained black. They are very decorative but not popular as dining chairs due to the
weakness of the seat jointing to the back and legs; the very thinness of the seat frame makes the joints very susceptible to breakage by weight or leverage. Nevertheless, this design, of all reproductions, is probably the one most faithfully copied. 1890-1930
A pair of oak bobbin-turned chairs in the style of 1660-1680 with leather covered backs and seats, peppered with large brass-headed studs like a pair of Restoration Hell’s Angels! These must surely have met the taste for medievalism with a vengeance. The bobbin-turned stretchers and the legs, with their square-section joints, look like faithful copies of the originals.
Another pair of oak chairs, known as Cromwellian in style, which emulate those of 1650-1670. They are similar to the previous examples but the more severe column turning of  the legs, with plain square stretchers joining them at ground level, is perhaps more apposite to the Protector’s time. Covered in velvet and just right for that big reproduction refectory table in the dining room.
An oak chair of square design in emulation of the 1650-1670 period and often known as ‘Cromwellian’. The turning on the front legs is not of a period type.
A ‘Queen Anne’ style chinoiserie chair of considerable quality. There was a revival of lacquer of this type in the 1920s and 1930s, with some high quality ‘reproductions’, in somewhat free interpretations, being produced.
1920-1930 For the single armchair. A set of two plus four singles
A reproduction of a caned French chair which, in Britain, has connotations of Adam and other classical styles. The chair is gilded over a gesso surface and has, unfortunately, an air of belonging to a ballroom or dining room of an old-fashioned hotel.