CHAIRS  upholstered, Victorian uprights
As the wavy curves of the rococo died out, so a new, severer, heavier and altogether more stolid form appeared. Built rather too enduringly and associated with the graver, more portentous side of Victorian life, these chairs have not yet found great popularity and many more would have been broken up if they had not been quite so strongly built. Perhaps due for a revival.
This chair almost takes up where the last chairs of the previous section leave off. The back design is very similar but the arms and legs are altogether different. Note the heavy turning and the spindled gallery under the arms  very popular in the 1870s.
A successor to the spoon back but with classical additions, including pillars and a pedimented top. Note that the chair is missing its castors. 1880-1890
The classical and 18th century revival has arrived  note the use of the slightly Hepplewhite back, Adam-ish pillars and earlier 19th century legs but with a bit of incised grooving on the seat rail. A similar design occurs in C. & R. Light’s 1881 catalogue.
A heavy single chair, possibly intended for the dining room, with upholstered seat and back. The seat has an overstuffed appearance and it is clearly built for heavy use.
The style of ‘the Louis’ has intervened. A sub-French design of the turn of the century which is to be found in suites of furniture for about twenty years. In a sense, the rococo is back, but in a much less attractive form. 1895-1915
Another heavily-built chair with rexine upholstery using sub-classical design and carving. The broad, curved top rail with its base-relief carving of acanthus leaves, is approaching the Edwardian type. 1890-1900
CHAIRS  upholstered, ‘designers’ chairs, 1860-1910
The architects who were involved in the various design movements from 1860 onwards tended to produce chairs that were rather puritan in concept, perhaps as a reaction from the stuffed upholstery of Victorian comfort. A small selection is shown here  chairs by famous designers tend to be individually hunted and expensive.
An oak armchair of Gothic reformed design, with all the hallmarks of the movement in its motifs, its ‘revealed’ construction and decoration. The use of the leather upholstery with impressed sun or sunflower motifs is also very interesting and characteristic of the interest in Japanese design at the time. The chair is a version of a popular Victorian open-arm tub chair, much found in more conventional Victorian versions. 1860-1870
A leather-covered armchair which provides an interesting companion with the previous ‘Gothic’ chair with its impressed Godwinesque ’suns’. This is the traditional Victorian version, with baluster and bulbous turning to the legs and arm supports, made in an uncompromising mahogany and with a distinctly ‘club’ or institutional look about it.
A chair designed by E.W. Godwin (q.v.) for the William Watt catalogue on Art Furniture of 1877. A chair subsequently much copied, particularly the back, which was admired by the Arts and Crafts Movement (q.v.).
This mahogany chair with tulip-pattern upholstery is of a design derived from Godwin, particularly the back, which is similar to an AngloJapanese type in which the uprights continue vertically well clear of the back panel. Would now be loosely called ‘art nouveau’ particularly due to the tulip upholstery, but it is in fact much more of an Arts and Crafts Movement chair of carefully-considered design. Note the incised ring turning on the front legs and back uprights and the way in which the arm supports sweep right down through the seat rail to the stretchers between the front and back legs. 1885-1895
A stained beechwood chair, also of the Arts and Crafts Movement, with twist-turned arm supports. The use of vertical straight turned spindles is rather overdone but it is, again, a very carefully thought-out design.
A more flagrantly art nouveau chair, using the flat capped uprights associated with Voysey in conjunction with inlaid ‘whip-lash’ floral marquetry in the rather sinuous back rail.
There is a strange use of short curtain-like screens to the sides and back.
A simpler and more satisfying art nouveau chair, again with flat-capped uprights and inlaid marquetry, but this time in a more solid, almost ‘hall-porter’s’ or `saddleback’ derivation for totally enclosed comfort. C. 1900

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.

Balloon-back chair

The voluminous skirts of the mid-nineteenth-century woman needed wider, broader seats to chairs, and so the severe curves of Regency furniture swelled and rounded. There were several conflicting currents which influenced the Victorian furniture designers: the slim silhouettes of Sheraton furniture, the more angular shapes of the sabre-legged and
Signs of authenticity
1. Good quality solid woods with good graining.
2. Well-made frames with good thickness of wood for legs, back and seat frame.
3. Deep, incisive carving and shaping of back and seat rails.
4. Crest-rail join to tops of side supports should be seamless, virtually invisible with well-matched woods.
5. Solid, high-quality upholstery in curled horsehair – white for the very top quality.
6. No stretchers to legs – cheap mass-produced ‘period’ balloon backs were made with stretchers but they are neither durable nor particularly attractive.
7. Grain of front legs running up to corners of seat frame.
8. Grain of back legs continuing well above seat level to terminate at crest rail or design feature.
Likely restoration and repair
9. New upholstery covering whole of seat frame. This may indicate seat frames are split or broken, repaired and covered up.
10. Front legs replaced – either broken or ‘married’ from a better-designed chair.
11. Backs broken and repaired. Vulnerable points on inward curve of waist, and where crest rail joins back supports.
Plugs will probably be clearly visible.
12. Strengthening blocks or metal braces added to corners of underframe.
13. Original drop-in frames filled, upholstered over front and side seat rails.
the flush-sided chair, and a nostalgic hankering for the ,romantic’ shapes of Queen Anne and early eighteenth-century designs. Added to these, the technical advances in mass-production and the cheapness of labour lured designers into a tangle of unhappy liaisons. The cabriole leg reappeared, but with a thin scrolled or pad foot, all heavily carved and decorated. The fine lines of Sheraton’s taper-turning became bulbous, the reeding thickened, and even in such designers as Gillows of Lancaster, chairs seemed the least successful pieces of furniture as far as the eye was concerned.
In the balloon back, however. there was a mixture which. if not immediately appealing to the stricter rules of design was extremely successful as far as its function was concerned. It was, and still is, one of the most comfortable chairs ever made. Its waisted back reflects the shape of fashion, and though in many mass-produced chairs the front legs seem ill-assorted with the plain square-sectioned back legs, in many the results are well-balanced in a peculiarly Victorian way.
Balloon backs were made for a variety of purposes and differ 3 slightly in shape, depending on whether they were intended for the parlour, dining room,
bedroom and drawing room, or for occasional use as side chairs.
Construction and materials
Balloon backs were made in solid wood, in mahogany, rosewood, walnut, and simulated rosewood. Their construction reverts to the traditional one of front legs tenoned into the sides of the seat-frame and back legs continuing up to form the side supports of the back. Frames were usually of beech or birch with seats upholstered in cloth, needlepoint or leather with brass studs.
Many lighter balloon backs were made entirely in beech, stained or ebonized, and mass-produced with machine-cut timber and shallow
mechanical carved decoration. With these chairs, it is quality rather than date which determines price – good and bad designs were made simultaneously during their entire production period which spans nearly 100 years.
Detail
The most characteristic balloon-backs have a waisted back and a single seat rail, usually set low, carved and decorated. There were some designs made with a vertical back splat, carved and decorated, reaching only to the seat rail, and these were known as crown back.
The most familiar shape, with a crest rail which dips in the centre, is usually associated with rectangular,
square-fronted upholstered or drop-in seats and a straight seat rail. This design usually has heavily turned front legs, or stout, bulbous reeded front legs. On oval-back chairs, the seat is rounded and the legs are frequently an emasculated version of the cabriole leg, terminating in little scrolls, outward curving and somewhat bandy, sometimes with small tapered feet. Heavier salon chairs were often set on castors. Some of the more pleasing designs have upholstered back panels.
Variations
Period country designs were not made by individual country chair-makers, involving as it did many mass-production methods. Cheaper versions made in very reputable furniture-making centres were certainly destined for Victorian cottages, and were usually made in beech, painted or stained, with cheap-quality upholstery materials and little or no carved decoration. Many people find these simple shapes preferable to the more ornate provincial chairs, so they are by no means always less expensive.
Below left: nineteenth-century Adam revival chair with upholstered back, carved crest rail and apron, and curving, ‘French style’, legs.
Below right: early balloon-back, c.1845, with curved crest rail, waisted back, neatly turned front legs and upholstered seat.
Reproductions
It is doubtful whether any manufacturer has yet found it a commercial proposition to reproduce balloon-back chairs. They were made in such enormous quantities that there are still plentiful supplies of genuine period chairs available which, with restoration, stripping, reupholstery and general repair, find a ready market.
Mixing and matching is carried out on quite a large scale: for example, a bulbously unattractive front leg replaced by a better-looking design, either newly made or taken from other chairs in poor condition. The only pitfall occurs when mahogany front legs have been added to a chair otherwise made entirely of beech, or vice versa. It does not enhance the value, since, although the ultimate product may look better, it is clearly a marriage and therefore not worth as much even as the original cheaper chair made entirely of beech.
No doubt there will come a time when these extremely comfortable, typically Victorian chairs are reproduced, then it will be a question of becoming aware of modern methods of construction and the use of woods which were definitely not part of the Victorian chair-maker’s repertoire.
Price bands
Upholstered back, £200-250 each.
Standard plain, £30-70 each. Set of six, £320-550.
Rosewood, mid-Victorian –set of six, £650-900.
Carved, mid-Victorian – set of six, £800-1,000.
Rosewood-framed chairs are the most expensive, followed by walnut, then mahogany.

Sheraton chair

Even at its most decorative and ornate, Sheraton furniture is made with very little integral ornament, and relies for its originality and sparkle on painting and gilding, inlay and japanning. Sheraton was puritan by conviction and by nature, favouring straight lines rather than curves, and multipurpose space-saving furniture for the ranks of Georgian terraced houses which had recently been built. He came to London in 1790 from the North of England, and was designing during the Napoleonic Wars, when materials and money were short, and much of his furniture was made in cheaper beechwood and birch, rather than expensive mahogany, although he did favour satinwood which was costly. In construction, Sheraton was a
traditionalist. He reverted to the old manner of making chairs with crest rails tenoned between the back supports, as opposed to overriding them or curving into them. On chairs with arms, he took the line even higher than Hepplewhite, so that the arm of the chair sweeps up to the crest rail in an abrupt curve, almost as though it is part of the back itself.
Signs of authenticity
1. Made of beech, with ash or birch underframes.
2. Crest rail tenoned into sides of back supports.
3. On chairs with arms, arms joined oined to fronts of back supports, high up and usually on a line with a horizontal back rail.
4. On chairs with upholstered seats, pronounced height of seat above frame.
5. Front legs taper-turned to the frame, then square-sectioned, forming the corners of seat
frames on straight-fronted chairs.
6. On chairs with round seats, legs taper-turned to frame, then square-sectioned flush with curve to form solid underframe.
7. Back legs either square-sectioned or taper-turned, but always square-sectioned at seat level to form stout join of chair frame.
8. Crest rail, supports and arms all turned, reeded or fluted.
Likely restoration and repair
9. Original frames of seats overstuffed when re-upholstered – a frequent Victorian practice.
10. Stripped and repainted and gilded.
11. Recaned panels and seats.
12. New blocks on corners of drop-in seat frame.
13. Damaged cane seats overstuffed – signs of holes for original caning on underframe.
14. Made of cheaper birch entirely – probably a later copy.
Construction and materials
In spite of their air of fragility, Sheraton chairs were remarkably solidly constructed, often in beech, with a sound knowledge of timber and of stresses and strains. In their basic construction, they have more in common with the traditional framed construction than any chairs made from the beginning of the eighteenth century onwards. The back is supported by a top rail and lower rail set parallel and tenoned into the sides of the back supports. The back legs are raked back and square-sectioned in his early designs, though later they were less solid and usually tapered or taper-turned, like the front legs. On chairs with arms, the design exaggerates the line of continuity from front leg to arm support, carrying it up to elbow height, often without a curve at all. The back splats are arranged in geometrical patterns of parallel
lines, lattice, or a mixture of both. Seats were often curved or round, upholstered and built up on a solid front apron.
Drop-in seats were
supported with four shaped brackets on the four corners of the seat frame. Front legs were taper-turned, and the use of beech allowed a slight splay since it is a pliable, springy wood, not rigid or liable to split.
Detail
Sheraton seats were often caned, sometimes also with caned panels in the rectangular backs. The back splats were characteristically arranged in geometrical patterns of parallel lines, lattice, or a mixture of both. Japanning, painting and gilding were also used. Crest rails, supports and arms were often turned, reeded or fluted to lighten the design.
Variations
The return to the square back suited many country chair-makers who were still making chairs with traditional construction, to which Sheraton had returned. Most typical of the country versions of his designs are the plain bar-back and rail-back chairs. The other two types of country chairs of the period could equally well have evolved naturally, without benefit of Thomas Sheraton’s The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book (1791-94), and indeed could have been the inspiration for many of his rectangular chair designs. Both originated in the North of England – the spindle back and the bobbin back with their deep plain crest rails developed from the old box-construction.
The country tradition of setting the front and back stretcher slightly higher than the side stretchers continued, and the front stretcher was also often simply turned, again a country tradition. On country chairs of this period, wooden seats were often slightly dished. On chairs with arms, the construction was traditional, with the arm support being a continuation of the front leg, with the arm tenoned into it.
Top: late eighteenth-century, cane-seated chair in simulated bamboo.
Above: Sheraton provincial chair, c.1810.
Reproductions
Nineteenth century
Sheraton was very much a designer for the trade, and contemporary production of his chairs and other furniture was extremely large. During the early nineteenth century
Gillows of Lancaster, the
Seddons, Edwards and Roberts, Cooper and Holt, Wright and Mansfield, Jackson and Graham, Johnson and Jeans and many other large furniture manufacturers made quantities of Sheraton furniture.
The Victorians copied some of his more fantastic ‘Egyptian’ and classical designs, suitable for the increasing
ostentation in taste, and many Sheraton-style chairs were made in mahogany to give them a more substantial appearance.
Some of these nineteenth-century variations are pleasing, solid and well-constructed. Later versions are not so successful, having square-sectioned tapered legs and stretchers, or more bulbously turned front legs. The height of the bottom back rail was an integral part of the construction as well as the design, and on late versions chairs look oddly proportioned, as though the chair back has been compressed.
Twentieth century
During the Edwardian period, countless cheap copies of Sheraton’s little cane-seated chairs, gold-painted and flimsy, were made for ballrooms and public functions. They should not be confused with Regency ,rout’ chairs, which were elegantly proportioned and well-made, though few of them have survived intact.
Price bands
Simulated bamboo, c.1810, £.115-125.
Square back, reeded, c.1810, £120-180 each.
Set of six, with two
armchairs, £3,200-4,000.
Provincial reeded and plain, £90-120 each.
Set of six, £1,500-1,800.

Early XVIII Century Chairs

EARLY in the 18th Century, Queen Anne-style chairs had a solid, narrow splat, usually of a vase or baluster shape, which fitted into the centre of the back rail. The frame tended to be straight and narrow, with rounded shoulders, and the seat was rounded or balloon-shaped with an upholstered seat.
Queen Anne chairs were usually made of walnut, although vernacular versions were made of elm or oak. They had slightly cabriole legs and pad feet. The earliest versions had Hat or turned stretchers.
During the second quarter of the 18th century, squared seats became more common. The seat rails were shallower and often shaped, and sometimes had carved or applied shells in the centre. Chair backs had
serpentine crest rails terminating in scrolls or volutes and the back splat was wider. The upper section of the back splat sometimes had scrolled ears close to the intersection with the top rail. On very fine examples,
splats were sometimes carved at the edges.
The knees of cabriole legs were now more pronounced and frequently carved with shells or husks, or had carved volutes attached below them. Most chairs still had pad feet, but claw-and-ball feet first appeared in
about 1725 in Britain and around 1740 in the American colonies.
Chinese furniture makers produced chairs that were similar in style for the lucrative European market.
The back splats is solid and an inverted baluster shape.
Carved roundels echo the decoration on the crest rail.
Shell motifs are often found on cabriole legs of the period.
ENGLISH SIDE CHAIR
This is the ultimate example of a George I side chair. The solid, inverted baluster-shaped back splat slips into a shaped shoe. Rounded shoulders form a continuous S-shape to the stiles, which terminate in volutes.
Carved shells adorn the centre of the crest rail and appear on the shaped knees. The balloon-shaped seat is
upholstered in needlepoint. The front of t-e seat rail has a cartouche in the centre. The cabriole front legs have claw-and- ball fee- the back legs have block feet. This type of chair was copied all over Britain, Europe.
the colonies, with chair-makers drawing various elements depending on their cl
c.1720.
ENGLISH SIDE CHAIR
This is an early example of a Queen Anne side chair. The back splat is solid, the shoulders and stiles are slightly curved, and the slip seat is balloon-shaped. The chair is attributed to John Yorke on the basis of the
design and construction. c.1710.
CHINESE ARMCHAIR
This open-style armchair, made of solid padouk, incorporates a variety of different elements. The solid splat is shaped but the stiles below the shoulders remain straight. The splayed cabriole legs are shorter than those seen on European examples. c.1740.
AMERICAN SIDE CHAIR
This walnut chair from Massachusetts displays a mixture of styles. It has the slim back splat and turned stretchers popular at the beginning of the century, while the square slip seat and curved legs are more typical of the mid century. It represents a transition between Queen Anne and Chippendale styles. c.1745.
PERUVIAN ARMCHAIR
This mahogany chair reflects the Rococo style. The crest rail has asymmetrical central carving. The sinuous moulding continues from the crest rail down the stiles and onto the arms. The legs are cabriole-shaped with
C-scrolls on the knees. The pierced splat may be a later replacement. c.1750.
INTERPRETING THE FRENCH STYLE OF CHAIRS
During the 18th century, the European nobility and the increasingly influential middle classes sought more elegant surroundings and rooms in which to entertain and converse, and with this came more comfortable
furniture, which invited visitors to linger.
This desire for a more sociable environment led to the development of new chair styles. French craftsmen created the fauteuil, an upholstered armchair with open sides. This feminine-looking piece influenced the
development of chairs around the world, and allowed the occupant to entertain in comfort.
Compared to the heavy-looking, high-backed chairs of the 17th century, these armchairs were lighter and more refined in shape, reflecting the fashion for feminine Furnishings. The), were often decorated in the same style as the room’s other furnishings, using similar colour and fabrics.
The seat and back of the fauteuil were upholstered to make the chair more comfortable. The armrests
were also padded and covered in the same fabric. The arms were set further back around a quarter of the length of the side-rail in order to accommodate the large, hooped skirts that were fashionable with aristocratic ladies from around 1720.
Decoration was often asymmetrical in the Rococo style, incorporating shells and rocaille. Raised on cabriole legs, the entire frame of the chair was a mass of graceful curves. Usually painted in pale blues, greens and yellows to match the colour scheme of the interior, the exposed framework might also have gilt decoration to emphasize both shape and carved detail.
Cabinet-makers all over Europe strove to emulate and surpass the talents of their French counterparts in meeting the demands of their wealthy clients, many of whom were hungry for furniture in the French taste. Interpretations of the fauteuil were plentiful throughout the continent, and the fauteuil became the seating style of choice for the most fashionable European homes in the early 18th century.
Italian Armchair Inspired by the fauteuil, this Italian example has a higher, more oval back with intricate gilt carving. The pastel paint reflects the French fashion for more subtle surroundings. c.1750.
German chair This chair emulates those of contemporary French cabinet-makers, whose influence can be seen in the ornate, rocaille carving and the pale colours of the floral-embroidered silk upholstery. NAG
English armchair Essentially French in style, the later date of this armchair by Ince and Mayhew is evident from the square, tapering legs and Neoclassical decoration, which were fashionable from the 1760s.
French Fauteuil The elegance of the gentle curves is emphasized by the gilt decoration. The shell motifs on the crest rail and the knees are typical of the period.
CANTONESE SIDE CHAIR
The wide, undulating shoulders of this chair and the unusually wide splat indicate that the chair is of non-European origin. The crest rail and back stiles are made from one piece of wood, which is typical of Chinese furniture. c.1730.
SWEDISH ARMCHAIR
The back splat of this mahogany chair is unusual in that it terminates into a back stretcher rather than into the seat of the chair. A stylized carved shell decorates the crest rail and serpentine apron. This chair also has
turned stretchers, even though they were no longer fashionable at this time. c. 1755.