Sheraton Single Chair in Mahogany with Straight Legs - A Regency Arm and Single Chair - Regency Mahogany Sabre-Leg Chair

A simpler Sheraton design with tapering legs normally made in mahogany, c. 1800. The arm uprights are of straightforward turning without the spiral reeding which adds greatly to price. An elegant and simple style
which remained popular for many years.
A mahogany armchair of c.1800 date. An excellent example of a good quality chair, as evidenced in the reeding and lightness of design of the back. The turned legs are a little clumsier and have hints of later things to come.
A mahogany Sheraton style single chair, c.1800, with Gothic arching in the design of the back. The legs are tapered on the inside edge only and are reeded, as is the back. An elegant and simple chair.
Country Sheraton design armchair in mahogany with bowed solid seat, c.1810. A satisfying and simple country design of which many were made to meet the popular demand caused by the town versions.
A rather heavier Sheraton style mahogany country chair with drop-in seat, c.1810. The broad top rail of the back has been made slightly wider than the back uprights which detracts slightly from the elegance of the
style. Otherwise the construction and tapering legs are typical.
An elegant chair of the early Regency period, c.1820, with caned back and seat. The outward turn of the simulated bamboo legs is most effective and the balance is completed by the curved top rail. The seat rail and the top rail are inlaid with stringing in the approved classical manner. Many of these chairs were made of birch or beech and then ebonised or painted. They are almost inevitably very expensive.
A country Sheraton single chair in mahogany with straight legs and solid seat, c.1810. The square back with vertical rails owes much to the popularity of Sheraton styles, otherwise the design comes from a
straightforward eighteenth century construction.
Late eighteenth/early nineteenth century oak spindle-back chairs, sometimes called ‘Lancashire’ chairs. They are rush-seated and are sometimes made of elm.
A very simplified country chair of c.1800. The design owes something to Sheraton in the tapering front legs and squared style of the back. The two horizontal rails are very plain and more ornamented versions are to be found. The solid bowed seat is made of elm and the rest of the chair is fruitwood.
Another very elegant Regency chair, c.1825, with rope twist motif on the back and sabre legs. The caned seat again adds to the overall lightness of design.
A similar pair of Regency chairs with reeding continuous down back uprights, sides and sabre legs. The carved decoration is simple and elegant,1830
A Regency period library chair which converts into a set of steps, c.1830. These chairs usually attracted a high degree of craftsmanship and are normally in either mahogany or rosewood. The arms and sabre front legs exhibit typical Regency characteristics although there is a hint of William IV in the broad carved top back rail.
Rather a hybrid piece of furniture which was either little made originally or subject to demolition from heavy bibliophiles. Either way, now becoming rarer and more expensive.
A Regency arm and single chair, c.1825, similar to the previous example in rope twist design but with drop in seats instead of cane. The panel between the horizontal rails in the back is inlaid with brass.
A late Regency or William IV period chair made of mahogany, c.1835. In the heavy curl of the arms and the reeded front legs the approach of the Victorian era is foretold. The bold, wide, outward-pointing top rail is
typical of the 1830 - 40 decade. Look out for conversion front legs, i.e. the original turned and reeded ones are sometimes removed and replaced by sabre legs to increase value.
Balance of top rail  (heavy top rails detract).
A typical Regency mahogany sabre-leg chair of pleasing proportion and design, c.1830. Elegant and small, yet comfortable, this type of chair has become understandably very popular since the war of 1939 - 45. They
are also to be found in rosewood, an even heavier and more durable wood which increases their value.

Eighteenth Century Windsor Chair - A Child’s Windsor Chair with the Gothic Arched Back in Yew Wood

Eighteenth century Windsor chair. Difficult to date exactly since this type was made for a long time, but probably late in the century and continuing into the early nineteenth century. The simple stickback without a splat, and the saddle seat are typical of the earlier types. The curving arm supports are also interesting, since during and after the Regency period turned arm supports became the fashion. This indicates that this chair may be earlier. However, this design appears in Gillows’ cost books in the early nineteenth century both in mahogany and an elm and cherrywood combination.
Elm and cherrywood.
A child’s Windsor chair with the Gothic arched back in yew wood. Although the arm supports and legs bear fairly representative nineteenth century turning work, the crinoline stretcher and well shaped splat make this a nicely proportioned and well made chair.
A Windsor chair of c.1760. The seat would be very ample and the chair of bold proportions. Note the curving crinoline stretcher between the front legs  a feature usually associated with better-made chairs.
A comb-back Windsor chair of approximately 1780. Note the well-shaped saddle seat and the leg turning which is emphasized at the lower part. Many American Windsor chairs are of this design.
Price Range: Single $30  $40
(Yew not often found in this design)
Also, sets of this type are not usually found.
A fairly typical Windsor chair of the nineteenth century. The proportion and the turning of legs and arm supports are altogether heavier. There are still reasonable numbers of these chairs in existence and their very strong construction, particularly when yew is used, makes them very durable and utilitarian antiques.
A fairly common type of low-backed Windsor used for dining purposes. Note the turned arm supports which indicate nineteenth century origins.
Another simple variation of a type which was made during the latter half of the nineteenth century. In this case there is no left arm since the chair was made for an Officers’ mess where the facility to rise, wearing a
sword, without picking up the chair as well was a considerable advantage.
A mid-nineteenth century Mendlesham chair of c.1830, a Suffolk variation of Windsor designs rather allied to Lancashire chairs in the decoration. Highly priced in East Anglia.
A late nineteenth century development of the Windsor chair. Rather ornate with heavy turning; simpler versions were common in schools and offices or institutions until recently.
The Smoker’s Bow, a chair very common in offices and public houses from the end of the nineteenth century onwards. A large heavy chair which will stand considerable abuse. The horizontal hoop is no longer made by
bending the wood but is constructed from several pieces shaped on a band saw and screwed together. In early Windsor chairs this method of forming the hoop was adopted, but not always by using screws; the upright spindles did this.

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.

Windsor chairs

Although these chairs are usually attributed to the end of the eighteenth century, their origins go back much further, and chairs of similar design are known to have been made as early as the end of the seventeenth century. Their construction is entirely different from any other type of country chair, and relates more
Signs of authenticity
1. Figuring of grain clearly visible on underside of seat as well as surface — timber was split, not sawn.
2. On chairs with arms, yew wood arm hoop until c.1790.
3. Back and front legs with matching turning.
4. No nails, joints of any description other than plain taper-turned tenons on all joins.
5. Saddle shape to seats, on versions with and without arms.
6. On chairs with arms without V-support and ‘bob tail’, grain running from side to side on seat.
7. On chairs with V-supports, and ‘bob tail’, grain running front to back.
8. Uneven thicknesses of ’sticks’ on all hand-made chairs.
9. Back feet more worn from use than front feet.
10. Worn, rich patination on seat and all parts in contact with body.
11. On hooped backs, ends of hoops split and wedged under seat for added strength.
Likely restoration and repair
12. Legs replaced, so no wear on feet.
13. Sticks replaced and these not taper-turned.
14. Seats not saddle-shaped suggests recent reproductions.
15. Saw-marks on undersides of seats indicates recent manufacture. Seat timber was split not sawn.
16. Hoops not dowelled right through seat or split and wedged indicates recent manufacture.
17. Legs replaced with wrong timber, often elm, to match seat. Should be beech, birch or fruitwood.
closely to the joint stool than to any other early chair. It is probable that they evolved from the simplest form of seat furniture of all - the three-legged stool.
In the case of Windsor chairs, it is not the backs, arms or legs which are the most important feature. It is the seat, made of a single slab of wood, usually elm, and worked with an adze into a saddle shape. This single
feature remains constant in all true Windsors, with or without arms.
The bending properties of yew wood had long been known, since it was the wood from
which longbows were made. The first use of a yew-wood bow on Windsors was not the upright hoop but a circular back and arm support, parallel to the chair seat. Originally the legs were simply pegged into the
Construction and materials thick seat-timber without stretchers. and splayed to wedge them. A row of holes was dowelled round the seat, and straight taper-turned ’sticks’ joined oined the arm-hoop to the seat, continuing up to form a curved back. held in place by a simple crest rail.
These early Windsors are often known as ’stick-backs’ or ‘comb backs’ because the shaped crest rail resembles a comb. It was not a very solid construction, and sticks and legs
became insecure and fell apart with use and as the timber shrank. But as long as the seat was intact, the pieces could easily be replaced, since they were extremely simply made. This rudimentary design seems to have been made independently by foresters and wood-turners all over the country, with regional differences in woods and detail, wherever there were good supplies of suitable timber. They are found in the West Country, and the Midlands, and notably in Buckinghamshire, in and around High Wycombe, which later became the heart of English chair-making, and has continued to be the centre of the industry until the present.
Improvements in the rudimentary design were soon apparent: a thicker central splat, often only below the arm-hoop, appears on many chairs before the full-length decorative central splat. Stretchers were inevitable to make the construction more solid. They were either very simple, joining the front and back legs on either side, or H-shaped, taper-tenoned and swelling in the centre. Extra support was given to stick-backs with a short extension to the back of the seat, with two extra stays in a V-shape behind the back.
It is hard to determine precisely when the hoop back first became a feature of Windsor chairs, but certainly it was contemporary with Hepplewhite’s round-back chairs. Up to this period, the arm hoop was still a relatively open curve, but with improved steaming and bending wood, introduced continued overleaf.
Reproductions
Victorian
Windsor chairs have been in continuous production quite authentically until the end of the nineteenth century, with small differences in methods of manufacture. As is to be expected, those made during Victorian times, such as the smoker’s bow, have rather more bulbous turning than earlier periods, but not enough to detract from their obviously traditional pattern.
Twentieth century
Everyone should be familiar with the innumerable mass-produced versions - usually singles - made by furniture-makers with well-known names. Their chief difference lies in the materials: machine-sawn woods for seats, with no figured grain on the underside and very little on the seat surface, steamed hoops, straight ’sticks’ without taper turning, machine cut and fretted centre splats and identical machine-turned legs.
Recently, smoker’s bows have been made in blonde woods, and in cheap pale woods, stained and ebonized. Some are of excellent quality but will not endure one quarter the length of time as an original Windsor. Most of them are not cheap, and with diligent hunting it is still possible to find genuine Windsors in twos and threes, and even sixes, for the same price, though they are more likely to be of the less attractive ‘kitchen chair’ type than hooped backs, which are now extremely scarce.
Genuine Windsor chairs dating from the eighteenth century are extremely expensive and sought after. Even late nineteenth century Windsor chairs with hooped backs can cost as much as their dining-room counterparts. Good Windsor chairs with arms are very much in demand.
Variations

Invariably the saddle seat was made from well-seasoned elm, a wood which did not warp with damp and was less likely to shrink or split than oak. Ash is also sometimes found in some districts. Legs were often of straight-grained beech, easy to work and turn, and less liable to wear. Arm hoops were almost always of yew wood until the beginning of the nineteenth century. The ’sticks’ were of ash, beech, birch or fruitwood - pliant woods with spring, rather than solid woods like oak and elm which are more rigid and liable to split. All four legs were turned to the same pattern and pegged or tenoned into holes in the seat, often with the dowels continuing right through the seat, as on joint stools. Stretchers were plain H-shaped on most straightforward Windsors, taper-turned and tenoned into the legs. In the mid-eighteenth century the ‘cow’s horn’ or crinoline stretcher was a feature of Windsors with arms, curving back from the two front legs and joined to the back legs with two angled, taper-turned stretchers. On these chairs, legs and arm supports were of a simplified baluster shape with ring turning. The hooped back on armed chairs is pegged right through the arm hoop - on chairs without arms, right through the seat. The back ,sticks’ are the full height of the chair, running through the arm hoop from seat to crest.

Windsor chair towards the end of the eighteenth century, woods other than yew could be used. It was steamed and bent, then clamped and cooled in the shape of a horse-shoe or hoop. By this time there had already been many refinements in the basic design: legs were bobbin-turned, front and back, as were the arm supports. Cabriole legs were used in the mid-eighteenth century, in most cases not very successfully as far as design was concerned. During the `Chippendale period’ many chair-makers attempted variations on the ‘Gothic’ with some curious results.
The two best-known designs for the central splat of the hoop back are the ‘wheelback’ and the ‘Prince of Wales’ feathers’, both contemporary with Hepplewhite. It was probably around this period that these essentially country chairs were dignified with the name
`Windsor’, by which they have been known ever since
Child’s high chair, early nineteenth century, in elm, ash and yew, with cow’s horn or crinoline stretcher. The footrest is missing.
Price bands
Elm and yew smoker’s bow,£.150–200.
Comb back in yew, ash and elm, £240-450.
Child’s high chair, £650-750.
Cabriole leg, eighteenth century, £850-1,200.
Nineteenth-century ‘kitchen’ chair, £85-160.
Highly-prized late eighteenth-century Windsor, with Cabriole legs, crinoline stretcher, well-designed pierced back splat and curving arm supports.
Elm and yew smoker’s bow, with rather bulbous Victorian turned legs and arm supports.
Early nineteenth-century comb back.
From the beginning of the nineteenth century the hoop back armchair was made in a design known as a ’smoker’s bow’. This was a squat version of an arm chair, with a flat bow cut from a single piece of wood, with a dumpy little crest rail dowelled on to the back. The ’sticks’ were far stouter, and were usually bobbin-turned, splaying out from the seat and dowelled into the underside of the flat armpiece. Hooped-back armchairs, wheelbacks and Prince of Wales’ feathers designs have rather eclipsed all other varieties of the Windsor chair such as the rail back, the lathe back and the spindle back.
The two factors which characterize a Windsor remain constant however: a solid seat into which the legs are pegged or tenoned, and a separate back structure, pegged or tenoned into the seat. No Windsor chair has back legs which continue up to form the supports of the back.
Late nineteenth-century
version of classic Windsor, with heavy arms, crest rail and thick back splats.

Adam round-back chair

Signs of authenticity
1. Fine, crisp carving in low relief in beech or dense-grained mahogany.
2. Seats overstuffed or upholstered, not drop-in.
3. Back legs raked and slightly splayed.
4. Hooped back in three
separate pieces: the two side-rails and hooped crest rail.
5. On chairs with central
pierced splat, separate shoe-piece attached to back seat rail.
6. Edge moulding and simple fluting to front legs – not plain square-sectioned as with earlier `Chippendale’ chairs.
7. Legs tapered on inner sides only – outer edges at right angles to ground.
8. On chairs with arms, slim curving lines, still attached to sides of seat rail but set further forward.
Likely restoration and repair
9. Arms added to single chairs to make up sets – width of seat should be at least 2 in wider for a ,carver’.
10. Check underframes for new wood and workmanship.
(Original sets are rare to find intact – many have been made up to the right number with excellent copies.)
11. Arms broken and repaired –line may not be as generously curving and sinuous as original. No patination on undersurface.
12. Back legs broken and replaced – grain of wood will not continue up to back of chair –line of join visible on bottom edge of seat frame where new leg has been dowelled in.
By the end of the Chippendale period (Thomas Chippendale died in 1779), fashions had changed considerably, due to the influence of Robert and John Adam, whose classical interior designs and architecture were altogether lighter and less substantial than those of the early Georgian period. The emphasis laid on painted and applied decoration had a marked effect on furniture design, and the preference for lighter colours influenced the woods and finishes used for furniture. Although George Hepplewhite is better known for his famous shield-back chair, he designed many chairs for Adam interiors, among them the hoop- or round-back chair which was a transitional step towards the radical construction of the shield back.
This period of chair design is particularly associated with tapering legs, either square-sectioned and ending in neat spade feet, or round, taper-turned legs on small peg feet. Often the rounded central panel was upholstered, and the seats of Adam round-back chairs were nearly always overstuffed.
Fashions in clothes changed, too, and the more clinging lines of dress allowed arm supports to be set closer to the front of the seat and swoop back to join the sides of the rounded backs.
Construction and materials
These graceful chairs were made in mahogany, and in beech, ebonized with black japanning, as well as in satinwood and in satinwood and
birch. The shape of the seat was nearly always curved or serpentine, and the back legs, while still continuing up to form the back supports, were slightly splayed. Legs were often tapered, and Hepplewhite reintroduced stretchers on many chairs to add strength to thinner tapering legs. Although the hoop of the back appears to be a continuous curved piece, it was still made with the same construction as earlier chairs, with the rounded crest rail meeting the top of the side rails almost seamlessly.
Detail
Often simple, tapering legs were lightened with fluting, or decorated with gadrooning or cabochon carving in low relief. On chairs with arms, the tops of the front legs were frequently decorated with classical motifs in accord with Adam designs. In earlier hooped-back versions of the Adam round back, the central splat was fretted and pierced, usually in vertical lines. and still fitted into a separate shoe-piece attached to the back rail   a design that came to be known as the wheatsheaf.
Variations
The classic country wheelback and the hooped-back Windsor chair are contemporary with Adam round-backed chairs, but form a special category of their own (see pp. 70- 71). Most common country versions are the camel-backed wheatsheaf chairs, made in elm, or oak and elm with wooden seats and H-shaped stretchers and an additional back stretcher, still set high.
The construction and craftsmanship needed to produce a round back, other than the methods used for Windsor chairs, was beyond the country furniture-maker, who continued to make chairs with the traditional construction of separate crest rails attached either to the tops of the side rails, or fitting between them.
Reproductions
The more solid mahogany round back or hooped back has not been reproduced as often as its cheaper, more decorative counterpart, the painted beechwood chair of similar design. These were made in great quantities by the Victorians, with indefinably wrong proportions, as boudoir chairs and drawing-room chairs. The most favoured has an upholstered panel in the back and an overstuffed seat. To be fair, some nineteenth-century versions achieved a very pleasant look, though the Victorian tendency to make curved what should be straight often results in unattractive legs, bowed and serpentine, on an otherwise pleasing design.
There are some nineteenth-century florid ’spider’s web’ chairs, a variation on the plain wheelback, usually easy to recognize by the turning on the tapered legs which already shows a tendency to bulbousness.
The most popular design, reproduced incessantly since the late eighteenth century, is the `wheatsheaf’, often with a squared crest rail.
Price bands
Period painted beech or giltwood, £650-850 each.
Late eighteenth-century mahogany, with arms, £85-120 each.
Set of six, £2,000-2,600.
Nineteenth-century reproduction, £70-90 each. Set of six, £600-1,000.
Variations, far left: provincial
chair of Hepplewhite design. Left: a late Hepplewhite-style armchair.
Left, above: round-backed Adam-style chair, with raked back legs.

Queen Anne wing chair

The Palladian architecture of the early eighteenth century suited the English landscape beautifully, but the high ceilings and spaciousness of the interiors were more suited to warmer climates. Porters in draughty halls sat out their on-duty hours in deep, hooded chairs which almost entirely enclosed them. In drawing rooms, their masters and mistresses sat protected from draughts in high-backed wing chairs, elegantly upholstered in fine needlework. In libraries, wing chairs were leather-covered and edged with rows of brass studs.
The square shapes of earlier periods gave way to curving lines and hooped backs to seating furniture, which was designed for comfort as well as elegance. Over two and a half centuries have passed and the design of the winged chair has remained virtually unchanged.
Signs of authenticity
1. Beech, plane or sycamore frame, with rust, dirt and embedded fabric where original upholstery was secured to the frame with square-headed iron nails.
2. Front legs continue up to form the corners of the seat frame.
3. Flowing S-curve of the arms, ending in rounded arm rests, curved and tapering down to the seat frame.
4. Back legs continue up above back seat level, raked inward before sloping gently outward to form shape of raked back.
5. Cabriole legs short, well-proportioned, with or without carving on the knee.
6. With pad feet and stretchers, the join is always into square-sectioned blocks, the stretchers usually H-shaped.
Likely restoration and repair
7. Almost certainly completely re-upholstered at least once in its lifetime.
8. Frames rebuilt, repaired, particularly on arms, which may have broken outwards and been pinned.
9. Back legs broken and replaced.
10. The whole built up from two good cabriole legs, perhaps from a stool or other piece of furniture.
11. No wing chair should be bought as genuine unless the underframe is visible at some part – particularly on the joins of the legs.
Construction and materials
The key shape of the eighteenth century wing chair is the curve, with the line carried down to the neat curve of the short cabriole legs in front and the splay of the back legs. For the first decade of the eighteenth century the seats were deep, and the arms set more or less square, but from c.1710 the seats flared out to accommodate the wide hooped skirts and full coattails of fashionable dress. The frames were made of beech, plane or sycamore — woods which could be close-nailed without splitting. Cabriole legs were of walnut until c.1720, and then of mahogany. They were upholstered with tow or horsehair, bound with webbing, and covered first with hessian and then with calico before the final upholstery in leather or needlework.
Detail
Early eighteenth-century wing chairs had little carved decoration on the front leg ‘knee’ (more elaborate carving became fashionable after c.1720 with the introduction into England of mahogany). They had shaped squab seats and frames were studded with small brass-headed nails around the outer sides of the wings and on the base above the legs, particularly when upholstered in leather.
In the early eighteenth century, front legs ended in plain pad feet and stretchers were slender. After x1730, heavier ball-and-claw feet were preferred and stretchers were often omitted altogether.
Variations
Upholstered furniture of any kind was a luxury until the mid-Victorian period and was not made or used by any but the well-to-do.
The equivalent of the wing-back chair in country furniture is the high-backed, oak settle to seat three or four people near the fire, with wings to keep out the draught, and the high-backed, so-called `lambing chair’ which was simply a single version of the long settle. Later, Windsor chairs became the country equivalent of the upholstered wing chair.
Below: wing chair with crisp outlines, c.1710.
Right: ‘Porter’s chair’.
Reproductions
There has been virtually no break in the production of winged chairs of one sort of another since they were first made. Some later eighteenth century wing chairs have wide ribbed backs and are more curved, with shorter arms, but most originals are very hard to find in any good state. The only major change in construction came in 1828 with the invention of the coiled spring for upholstered furniture. In the mid-Victorian period some chairs were made with cast-iron frames, a short-lived idea because of their extreme weight.
Above: nineteenth-century version, with bulging arm supports, drooping wings and insignificant legs.
Price bands
Eighteenth century, with original upholstery, k5,000
Eighteenth century, with later upholstery,
0,500-4,500.
Eighteenth century, with pad feet and stretchers, £2,500-3,500.
Nineteenth-century reproductions, £450 700.