About Antique Wooden Chairs
Antique wooden chairs encompass a variety of styles. The earliest chairs were little more than stools with backs. Arms were added, and rich carving replaced crude slats. The uncomfortable early pieces became the Windsor chairs and Hitchcock chairs of the 18th and 19th centuries. The simple homemade examples of the earliest days gave way to masterpieces in the style of Queen Anne and Chippendale. Antique wooden chairs--especially American chairs--can be extremely valuable in their original conditions.
History
Antique wooden chairs evolved over time from the solid, heavy models of the 16th century to the delicate, upholstered examples of the 18th century. Two distinct trends emerged: one that favored the simple tastes of vernacular art and architecture, and another that followed the dictates of high art. The earliest true chairs are of the wainscot type. They are made of ornamented wooden boards that resemble the wooden paneling found in 16th- and 17th-century manor houses.
Types
By the early 1700s, the solid backs had disappeared, replaced by wooden spindles in the vernacular styles, and gently curving backs and chair rails in the fashionable pieces. Windsor and Hitchcock chairs are examples of vernacular chairs of the 1700s and 1800s. Seats are of solid wood or woven rushes. Fashionable chairs are typically in either the Queen Anne or Chippendale styles. Chippendale chairs are noted for intricately pierced backs, fine scroll and shell work, and carefully proportioned ball and claw feet.
Structure
Chairs share a number of common elements. The backs on fashionable examples are called splats. These are essential arrangements of wooden tracery that support the back of the sitter. Splats are replaced by spindles, or wooden dowels, in vernacular examples. The legs found on all antique wooden chairs can be classed either as straight, in the case of Windsor and Hitchcock chairs, or cabriole in the more fashionable styles. Cabriole legs imitate the curve of an animal's leg and serve to create a more refined sense of proportion. Chair rails are the wooden pieces at the top of the chair. They join together the tops of the splats or the spindles.
Functional vs. Decorative
All pieces originally were functional. Though roped off in many a modern museum house, even the most elegant Queen Anne and Chippendale pieces were meant to be used. Nevertheless, such examples often formed parts of a larger ensemble.
Architects often designed everything from the external proportions of great houses and palaces to the precise arrangement of a chair, and the wall and ceiling decoration of a room. Particularly luxuriant chairs might sit in a precise spot in a room, helping to complete the overall decorative scheme. Vernacular chairs largely served as utilitarian pieces. Only the use of more expensive woods or especially well-turned spindles might set them apart as belonging to the master or mistress of the house.
Identifying Fakes
Fakes often are identified through errors in craftsmanship. The wood on older chairs generally is thicker than those on modern imitations. Individual chair parts vary slightly in thickness and evenness because they were made with hand tools. Minute traces of paint on an otherwise bare, wooden chair usually is a sign that the chair is an authentic antique. Forgers rarely attempt to duplicate such small remains. Old paints, too, differ from their modern counterparts in that they were made with natural plant and mineral colorants.
Tags: Anne Chippendale, Hitchcock chairs, Queen Anne, Queen Anne Chippendale, About Antique