GEORGE III PAINTED ARMCHAIRS - LIBRARY ARMCHAIR - GILTWOOD ARMCHAIR - DINING CHAIRS - HALL CHAIRS - GEORGE II UPHOLSTERED ARMCHAIR

A GEORGE III GILTWOOD ARMCHAIR, the moulded
frame with oval back with padded arms and downswept
supports, the moulded serpentine seatrail centred by an
anthemion clasp, raised on circular tapering fluted legs
with fluted oval feet, circa 1770.

A GEORGE III LIBRARY ARMCHAIR, the rectangular
stufied back with down-curved padded arm supports,
with a loose cushion, on square chamfered moulded legs
joined by H-stretchers, circa 1770.

A GEORGE III GILTWOOD ARMCHAIR in the French manner,
the stuffed cartouche-shaped back within a moulded
frame with out-curved padded arms on scrolling supports, the stuffed seat
with a carved apron on cabriole legs, circa 1775.

A GEORGE III WHITE-PAINTED ARMCHAIR in the French taste,
the padded cartouche-shaped back within a moulded frame
with outcurved padded arms on scrolling moulded supports, the
stuffed serpentine seat on cabriole legs, circa 1770.

A SET OF six GEORGE III MAHOGANY DINING CHAIRS,
including an Armchair, the arched toprails with pierced
splats carved with rosettes and husks around a patera, the
armchair with out-curved moulded arm supports, with
stuffed seats, curved seat fronts, and turned fluted front
legs, circa 1780.

A SET OF TWELVE MAHOGANY DINING CHAIRS, the
rectangular backs with three stick splats, with stuffed
seats and square tapering legs with block feet and
H stretchers.

A GEORGE III WHITE-PAINTED SIDE CHAIR in the
French style, the oval padded back with a moulded
edge, the wedge-shaped stuffed seat on elegant cabriole
legs, circa 1770.

A SET OF THREE REGENCY BRASS-INLAID SIDE CHAIRS
in simulated rosewood, the rope-twist toprail above
two reeded crossbars joined by a panel inlaid with a
rosette and fleur de lys, the stuffed drop-in seats on
sabre legs, circa 1810.

A SET OF FIVE LATE GEORGE III MAHOGANY DINING
CHAIRS including an Armchair, with curved
panelled toprails, three fluted crossbars, the armchair
with downcurved moulded arms on baluster supports,
with stuffed seats and ring-turned baluster legs, circa 1815.

A SET OF six GOOD REGENCY MAHOGANY HALL
CHAIRS, each shaped back with simple incised decoration
and a central roundel painted with an armoriai crest, the
solid seats with canted corners and canted sabre front
legs, circa 1805, with squab cushions.

A GEORGE III MAHOGANY ARMCHAIR, the serpentine
toprail and pierced vase-shaped splat with outcurved
arms, drop-in seat on square legs joined by stretchers,
circa 1765, arms later.

A GEORGE III MAHOGANY ARMCHAIR of bergere
form, the arched stuffed back with a moulded frame and
with stuffed bow-fronted seat and reeded tapering legs,
circa 1780.

A SET OF six GEORGE III MAHOGANY CHAIRS, the
rectangular backs with three fluted splats, the solid seats
with squab cushions, on square tapering legs joined by
stretchers, circa 1800.

A LATE GEORGE II UPHOLSTERED ARMCHAIR, the
high padded back with scrolling arms and the stuffed
seat on square moulded legs joined by turned stretchers,
circa 1750.

A PAIR OF GEORGE II MAHOGANY CHAIRS with
gadrooned serpentine toprails, interlaced pierced splats,
the drop-in seats on carved cabriole legs ending in pad
tetl, circa 1760.)

A PAIR OF GEORGE III MAHOGANY SIDE CHAIRS with
shaped toprails, pierced interlaced splat and the drop-in
seat on square chamfered legs joined by an H-stretcher,
circa 1765.

A PAIR OF GEORGE III MAHOGANY CHAIRS, with arched stufFed
rectangular backs with padded seat on square legs joined by an H-stretcher,
circa 1770.

A SET OF EIGHT GEORGE III PROVINCIAL MAHOGANY
DINING CHAIRS including a pair of Armchairs, with
serpentine toprails pierced vase splats, outcurved arms
and the serpentine-fronted drop-in seats on square
moulded legs, circa 1770, restored     1500-2000
154 A SET OF FOUR GEORGE III MAHOGANY CHAIRS, the
hooped backs with pierced waisted splats headed by
wheat-ears, the stufFed seats on square tapering legs with
H-stretchers, circa 1770.

A SET OF FOUR GEORGE III MAHOGANY DINING
CHAIRS, the shaped moulded backs with pierced,
carved and waisted splats decorated with swags and
paterae, the drop-in seats on square tapering legs,
circa 1780.

A PAIR OF REGENCY CHAIRS with curved panelled
toprails, crossbars, drop-in seats and reeded sabre legs,
circa 1815.

A REGENCY EBONISED ARMCHAIR, the ringed toprail decorated
with flowers above moulded crossbars joined by caning,
with down-curved scrolling arms on scroll supports, with squab

cushion and caned seat, on moulded turned and fluted sabre legs, circa 1810.

A PAIR OF EBONISED AND PARCEL-GILT ARMCHAIRS,
similarly decorated to the previous lot, with square
tapering legs joined by stretchers, circa 1800, originally
unpainted.

A SET OF SIX REGENCY EBONISED DINING CHAIRS,
the turned toprails painted with bunches of flowers
above four crossbars held by gilt balls, with squab
cushions’and caned seats, on ringed splayed tapering
front legs joined by a double stretcher set with a ball,
circa 1810, decoration restored.

A GEORGE II MAHOGANY CORNER ARMCHAIR of
unusual form, with a tall narrow arched upholstered
back, with semi-circular flat crossbars below, the arms
with turned supports and with saddle-shaped seat and
cabriole leg and three further turned legs joined by
turned stretchers, circa 1735.

A GEORGE II WALNUT CORNER ARMCHAIR, with
pierced splats, stuffed drop-in seat and chamfered legs,
joined by stretchers, mid-18th Century    150-250
27 A GEORGE II BOOKCASE with moulded dentil
cornice above a pair of glazed doors with lancet mullions,
containing shelves, the base with two short drawers and
brass handles, 7ft. 5in. high by 5ft. Hin. wide (226cm. by
180.5cm.) circa 1760.

A PAIR OF GEORGE III PAINTED ARMCHAIRS,
the moulded frames with padded shield backs,
padded arms and downswept supports, and the
bow-fronted fluted seatrails on circular

tapering fluted legs, circa 1775, now painted
white and gilt, partly re-railed.

A SET OF SIX LATE GEORGE III CANED MAHOGANY
CHAIRS including a pair of Armchairs, with shallow
curved and caned toprails and matching crossbars, the
seats with rounded corners and circular reeded tapering
legs, the arms with pillar supports, circa 1800, one toprail
and one back broken.

Bentwood chairs have become so much a part of our lives as to be almost invisible. In a simplified form they have been used in so many everyday places - shops, schools, private houses and public places - that it is difficult to imagine that their whole style was once a complete revolution in furniture-making. Today they are turned out in their thousands in factories all over
Signs of authenticity
1. Laminated wood, built up of alternately grained strips.
2. Generous curves with long unbroken sections curving under and over, rather than separate pieces joined at short intervals.
3. Taut panels caned on the diagonal to allow for the springiness of the chair.
4. Surface of wood smooth and silky, instantly recognizable once touched, compared with later solid bentwood.
5. Impeccable finish with sections shaped and smoothed to flow into the join.
6. Early solid birch bentwood chairs should be finely sanded and finished under black
I ebonized’ paint.
Likely restoration and repair
7. Laminated bentwood chairs and rockers which have been subject to too many changes in temperature and humidity will be ’sprung’ on curves, i.e. there will be splitting where the wood has shrunk and pulled away. It may be tacked and glued back into position but the damage is permanent and will occur again.
8. Recaned on the horizontal and vertical. The caning will break and the chair will not maintain its shape, but will eventually split from the strain.
9. Black paint stripped off. If this has been done by complete immersion in a caustic solution there may be some dissolving of the adhesives between laminations. Stripping must be done painstakingly by hand and there should be some small signs of remaining paint.
England, but their origins were elite and aesthetic.
Michael Thonet (1796-1871),
their inventor, was an Austrian who trained as a craftsman in the South German Biedermeier school of furniture-making. This was established as a reaction against French influence, in part motivated by the aspiration for a united Germany after the Napoleonic Wars, and in part aesthetic, a search for well-designed ‘bourgeois’ furniture. The parallel desire was felt in England, and was evident in the designs of J. C. Loudon and his school. Biedermeier was particularly successful with seat furniture, which was solid, well-made, elegant and, above all, comfortable. It was Michael Thonet’s search for new materials and techniques to
make chairs without ornament, carving or traditional construction that led him to experiment with the shipbuilding techniques of steaming and bending wood. His designs were first produced in laminated wood in the 1840s.
Thonet took out patents for his chair-making techniques, but when the patent ran out in the 1860s a London firm of furniture-makers, Hewlett and Company, took it up, and by the end of the century bentwood chairs were being made by many furniture-makers, particularly in High Wycombe, centre of England’s chair-making industry.
Construction and materials
Michael Thonet’s original designs were made in thin strips of wood, steamed and bent into shape and laminated together - a technique which had been known in England for about 100 years, although laminated wood had only been used for parts of furniture and not for a whole piece. Thonet’s first commission for these novel, smooth-curving designs was for the Leichtenstein Palace in Vienna, and although they were more detailed and complicated in their sinuous construction, the basic bentwood chair of today differs very little from those prototypes.
In England, the technique of steaming and bending wood had been applied to Windsor chairs for some years, using solid wood as
Variations
Bentwood chairs were particularly suitable for children, and both high chairs and small, miniature versions of the standard shape were made, particularly in the 1920s, for use in schools and nurseries.
Some early, finely designed, bentwood chairs made in England include versions of the sabre-legged S-armed chair, with the back made in a single hoop with the back legs, which are raked well back. Front legs curved forward in imitation of the line of the sabre-leg, but were round-sectioned and taper-turned. The S-curve of the arms was particularly suitable for the new bentwood technique.
Once furniture-making factories had begun to turn out bentwood chairs by the thousand, their finish and style degenerated into the ‘tearoom chairs’ of the 1920s and 1930s, being reduced to circular hoops and slightly splayed legs, whose timber was no longer carefully chosen for the correct grain, and which have since split and cracked.
opposed to laminated. The timber was generally birch, traditional wood for chair-legs because it was amenable to bending and was springy enough not to break or split. The cane seat, too, had been in production for country chairs and lightweight seat furniture ever since Sheraton had reintroduced it at the end of the eighteenth
century.
Early genuine Thonet bentwood chairs and rockers, for which the technique was particularly
suitable, were more curvaceous and elaborate, mainly due to the laminated wood which allowed more freedom than later bentwood chairs in birch, which consisted mainly of a series of hoops and standardized curves.
Reproductions
After a considerable spell of unpopularity as ‘cheap chairs there are now many extremely good reproductions of the original bentwood chair on the market, many of them originating in Taiwan and the Far East, where manufacturing is cheap and labour still skilled in traditional crafts such as caning. Their reappearance on the English scene can largely be attributed to the many well-designed small restaurants with imaginative decor, for which they were originally imported.
Price bands
Superb intricate shapes, top condition with original labels and original, unshipped
finish, £850-1,000.
Stripped or plain, simpler shapes with original label, £550-850.
Set of six chairs, original caning and labels, £350-500.
Period singles with labels and authentication, 135–50.
1920s plain but in good condition, £15-20.
Above: a child’s bentwood high chair, c.1870.
Right: an original Thonet, c.1860.

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.

The variety of chairs burgeoned in the mid to late 18th century, with French styles remaining popular. Although elements of the Rococo style lingered, chairs began to look more Neoclassical and became squarer and straighter. cabriole legs were rejected in favour of turned, tapered supports, often fluted or decorated with reeding, and oval and rectangular-    backs became more common.
Different types of chair evolved: the bergere remained the same stylistically, but the frame was often simply waxed, rather than painted and gilded, as in the first half of the century. Desk
chairs and corner chairs, which were popular at the beginning of the period, had shaped backs. The shield back became fashionable towards the end of the century, with the pierced splats incorporating a wide range of Neoclassical motifs. Desk chairs usually had rounded seat rails and often had an extra leg at the centre of the seat rail, making five legs in total.
Corner chairs, like hall chairs, were small and designed to be decorative rather than useful. They were usually rather fragile, as they were not designed for regular use.
At first, chairs were ordered individually, but from the mid century onwards, sets of furniture known as suites became more popular. These varied from small groups of matching chairs to extensive suites that included a number of pieces, such as armchairs, side chairs, bergeres, window seats, stools, and sofas.
Any decoration on hall and corner chairs was likely to be carved, but more expensive armchairs and their matching side chairs, designed for grander rooms, were often delicately painted or highlighted with gilding.
The top rail is waxed, rather than painted.
The sides of the chair are fully upholstered.
LOUIS XV BERGERE
This chair shows how Rococo style adapted to Neoclassical fashion. The beech frame retains a carved, serpentine top rail and cabriole legs, but is waxed. The chair is upholstered in blue silk.
The armrest is upholstered where the sitter’s arm is placed.
A simple C-scroll connects the arm to the cabriole leg.
The rear leg extends outwards.
LOUIS XVI DESK CHAIR
This French tub desk chair has a curved and lightly carved seat rail, and the seat, back, and sides are all upholstered in leather. It has Neoclassical turned and tapered armrests and legs. c.1780.
QUEEN ANNE CORNER CHAIR
This walnut chair has a crest rail with a raised yoke centre, shaped arms, and solid, vase-shaped splats. It has one front cabriole leg and three turned legs, all with slipper feet. c.1770-1800.
SOUTH AFRICAN CORNER CHAIR
This chair is made from native stinkwood and yellow wood. The pierced back splats are reminiscent of Chippendale designs. The square, chamfered legs are connected by stretchers. c.1780
NEW YORK CORNER CHAIR
This mahogany chair has a top rail with a raised yoke centre, carved knuckle handholds, and vase-shaped splats. The deep seat rail is supported on three cabriole legs with slipper feet and one rear turned leg. c.1750.
GEORGE III HALL CHAIR
This mahogany hall chair has a cartoucheshaped back. Within the C- and S-scrolled frame are carved heraldic elements, including an Irish harp and crown. The piece terminates in panelled, tapering legs. c.1770.
GEORGE III HALL CHAIR
One of a set of four, this mahogany chair has a typically Neoclassical oval back. The solid mahogany seat overhangs the front rail. Tapering legs support the frame and a stretcher connects the rear legs. c.1780.
CHINESE CORNER CHAIR
This rosewood chair has a central leg with a shell carved on the knee, and it terminates in a claw-and-ball foot. Attenuated turned stretchers anchor the legs. c.1780.
GEORGE III CORNER CHAIR
This provincial oak chair is one of a pair. The seat is composed of three planks of oak. Turned spindles connect the seat to the rounded back, a technique often seen on Windsor chairs c.1800.
ENGLISH HALL CHAIR
This mahogany chair has a balloon-shaped back that fits into a shoe at the base. The seat is solid mahogany with a circular lowered section. The tapered legs terminate in squared ends. c.1790
CHINESE HALL CHAIR
This chair was made for export to the West. The solid splats are decorated with an inlay. The dish-moulded seat is shaped at the edges. Square, chamfered legs are joined by stretchers. c.1760.
ENGLISH HALL CHAIRS
These mahogany hall chairs have central veneered tablets, and pierced, waisted supports. The seats are slightly bowed and framed with panels. The turned, blocked legs are joined by cross-stretchers.
c 1780.

Small, formal and more decorative than functional hall chairs were first named by Robert Manwaring, a furniture designer, in The Chair-Makers Real Friend and Companion, published in 1865.
Thomas Sheraton noted in The Cabinet Dictionary that chairs such as those that are placed in halls are for the use of servants or strangers waiting on business”. These wooden chairs were usual])- smaller than side
chairs. They had turned seats and often had the crest or arms of the farmily carved or painted on the chair back. Some chairs were made with plain backs so that families could have their own insignia carved or painted onto the basic chair.
The hall chair first appeared when Thomas Chippendale illustrated six designs of chairs for ‘Halls. Passages, or Summer-Houses’ in his Director.
Rival cabinet-makers, William Ice and John Mathew published three designs for hall chairs in the gothic taste” in their serialized pattern book, The Universal System off Household Furniture (1759-02). If it was too
expensive to carve the decorative crest on the back, then it was considered acceptable to “be painted, and have a very, good effect”.
Hall chairs These illustrations are from Thomas Chippendale’s The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker’s Director, 1762 (Plate XVII).
ENGLISH HALL CHAIR
One of a pair, this mahogany chair is modelled on the Renaissance sgabello chair. It has a shaped, waisted back and shaped seat. The front support and seat have indented panels, designed to bear a crest. c.1780.
FRENCH HALL CHAIR
This chair, one of a set of four, has a pierced wheel back with a central, raised, circular plaque. The wide, slightly dished seat is supported on tapered legs, and the front legs terminate in spade feet. c.1770.