Queen Anne spoon-back chair

Historical background
The transitional shape of chairs at the end of the seventeenth century included the curved S-scrolling legs with pronounced `knees’ and a carved central splat. These two key features were swiftly followed. by the
Signs of authenticity
1. Back made up of five parts: two side supports (or ’stiles’: continuation of back legs); a central curved, veneered splat; a shoe-piece attached to the
bottom seat rail and a decorative crest rail.
2. Cabriole legs cut from thickness of timber, with generous spring.
3. Tops of cabriole legs form corners of front seat frame.
4. Underframe of oak or beech.
5. Walnut veneer on solid
walnut for central back splat.
6. Made in walnut and walnut veneer to c.1735, then in mahogany.
7. Correct height of seat should be 1 ft 6 in.
8. All carved decoration integral, incised, including scallops, masks, etc. on aprons as well as carving on knees and crest rail.
9. Inner surfaces of drop-in seats and seat-frames unpolished, rough.
10. Shoe-piece made separately from back seat rail, not integrally.
Likely restoration and repair
11. New seat frames and back legs: underneath, the new wood can be clearly seen, as well as joints where legs have been attached to back seat rails not continuing in same grain all the way up.
12. Plain or squared cabriole legs decorated with later carving to add value: carving will be in line with silhouette, not
standing proud.
13. Arms added to increase value, deceptively curving. Seats of chairs with arms should be at least 2 2.5 in wider than singles.
14. Square corners to front of seat and integral shoe-piece suggests marriage between later base and original back.
cabriole leg and the single plain central splat so typical of Queen Anne chairs. The single innovation of the cabriole leg completely changed the construction of chairs, which no longer had stretchers and were made with deep aprons, solid underframes and curved backs. Drop-in seats, a feature of chairs from the 1690s, were soon adapted to the new seat-frame construction.
Construction and materials
The construction of the cabriolelegged chair differs so radically from its predecessors that it needs to be described in some detail. The cabriole leg was cut from a single piece of timber, using the natural spring of the wood for strength.
The ‘knee’ was first cut in squared section, and then rounded and carved. Above the ‘knee’, the top of the leg formed the corner of the seat-frame, which had to be deep and was made with an apron to take the depth of the leg support. The back leg construction remained the same, with the legs continuing up to form the side rails of the curved back. The central splat was cut in serpentine shape, not steamed and bent. With some of the end grain showing where the shape cut into the wood, the splat had to be veneered, and great skill was required to fit the veneered splat into the short length of carved crest rail above it. Below, the splat fitted into a shoe-piece, made separately from the back seat frame.
On armed chairs, the chief difference was that the arms were no longer supported by a continuation of the front legs, the arm supports being set back and curved. The arms, instead of being fixed to the front of the back supports, curved outward and were fixed to the sides of the back rails.
From c.1715 the curve of the cabriole leg was taken up under the seat on either side with two decorative side pieces, glued or dowelled to the tops of the cabriole legs and the underframe. Up to that date, pad or club feet were usual, but after 1715 the heavier ball-andclaw foot became fashionable.
Detail
In many cases the apron was veneered - when it was cut in serpentine shape, for example, as with the central back splat.
The scallop shell was a favourite motif on the crest rail, knees and centre of the apron until c.1714, then leaf carving with eagle’s heads on arms. From c.1720-35 the lion’s mask appeared on the cabriole leg with lion’s paw feet.
Variations
Period country copies were in oak or fruitwood and also in beech, with double stretchers on three sides and simply turned decorative front stretcher, still set high as in previous period. The front legs were often pinned into the underframe in a similar manner to the construction of later cane-backed and periwig chairs, which
was simpler but not so enduring. Many had rush seats and the central splat rested on a cross-rail above the seat. Others had a shoe-piece and the splat was fiddle-shaped or vase-shaped, fitting into a slightly curved crest rail. Plain wooden seated versions were also made, with slightly dished seats to take a loose cushion.
Far left: fine quality, c.1700, with shell-carved knee to the well-sprung cabriole leg. Positive cyma-curved side supports flow into crest.
Left: grand country version, with vase-shaped back splat, drop in seat, well-shaped cabriole legs on pad feet.
Reproductions
Nineteenth century
Like all Queen Anne furniture, these chairs were copied in the Victorian period, but the
cabriole leg looks bandy because the timber was skimped in the cutting. The back legs had an uneasy transition to the side rails of the back, often giving an ungainly line instead of a sweeping, raked curve. The shoe-piece was made as an integral part of the back seat rail, an easy sign to detect.
These chairs were too high-backed for dining chairs, having been made before the age of butlers and footmen, and of all chair designs, the Queen Anne spoonback is probably the least reproduced after the mid-nineteenth century.
Above: nineteenth-century copy, with awkward side supports, heavy back legs and weak
cabriole.
Price bands
High quality ’shepherd’s crook’ armchair, c.1700, £3,000-5,000.
c.1700, ball-and-claw, with veneered back splat, £1,800-2,500 each.
Provincial, c.1700, with solid back splat, £500-1,000 each.
Nineteenth-century, with veneered back splat,
£210-290 each.
Set of six, £1,500-2,000.