How to Date an Antique Chair

How old is my chair? To date an antique chair, start with the shape, which shows which style it follows, and then turn it upside down. Under the seat, the joints, saw marks, screws, upholstery and any marks reveal when it was really made. Hand-cut tenons with wooden pegs and uneven hand-sawn surfaces point to the period before the mid-19th century; machine screws, circular-saw marks and coil springs point to a later chair.

Facts

The style gives a first age

The parts of a chair have names, and they are worth knowing when you read auction catalogues: back posts, crest rail, splat, seat rail, front legs and stretchers. The diagram of the parts of a chair further down shows where they sit, and the guide to furniture terms explains the words. The shape of the front legs and back is the first thing that dates the style.

A Baroque chair has tall, straight backs, turned or spiral-twisted legs and stretchers close to the floor, like the wainscot chair. The Rococo chair has curved cabriole legs and a vase-shaped splat, like the Chippendale chair. The Gustavian chair and the Hepplewhite chair have straight, tapering legs and an oval or shield-shaped back. The chairs of the Empire and Biedermeier periods, like the Biedermeier chair, have sabre legs and broad, curved crest rails. The guide Rococo or Gustavian shows how the change of style appears, and furniture styles in chronological order gives the whole timeline.

Turn the chair over

The style only tells you what the chair wants to resemble. Chairs in the Rococo and Gustavian styles have been made continuously since the 18th century, and the most copied forms are the best known. So you move on to the construction, which is best seen under the seat and on the inside of the seat rail, where the surface has seldom been polished or repainted.

Older chairs are joined with mortise and tenon, often locked with a wooden peg driven through the joint. The peg is seldom perfectly round, and it sometimes stands slightly proud when the wood around it has shrunk. Hand-sawn surfaces have straight, slightly slanting marks, and the insides may be roughly hewn or planed, since no one was meant to see them. The curved marks of the circular saw became common in the 19th century, and straight, even machine-sawn surfaces point to a factory. If the carving is sharp and exactly the same on both sides, it may have been machine-cut rather than carved by hand.

Screws, upholstery and glue

Screws are a good marker of date. Hand-made screws have uneven threads and a crooked slot, whereas machine-made screws with a pointed tip became common from the mid-19th century. Modern Phillips screws and hex screws say that the chair is either new or has been repaired. Corner blocks screwed on under the seat rail are common on chairs of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Upholstery is dated in the same way. Older upholstered chairs are stuffed with horsehair, straw or sea grass on webbing, and the cover is fixed with small hand-forged tacks. Coil springs in the stuffing became common in the 19th century, and foam rubber points to the second half of the 20th century. New upholstery is common and does not lower the age of the chair, but look for many rows of old tack holes in the seat rail: they show that the chair has been reupholstered several times.

Factory chairs and marks

From the middle of the 19th century chairs were made in factories. Thonet’s bentwood chairs, such as chair No. 14, were screwed together from a few steam-bent parts and were often marked with a branded stamp or a paper label under the seat. The design of the stamp and the wording of the label distinguish different decades. The bentwood diagram below shows how the parts were bent.

During the 20th century the marks became more numerous: the maker’s brand, labels, model numbers and sometimes a year or date code under the seat. Tubular-steel and plastic chairs have cast or stamped marks. A flat-pack chair is recognised by hex screws, cam fittings and pre-drilled holes. Classics from the post-war period were often produced in several batches, and then it is the marking that distinguishes early examples from later ones.

Wood and finish

The type of wood also gives a time frame. Baroque chairs were often made of oak or walnut, the finer chairs of the Rococo and Gustavian styles of beech, walnut or mahogany, and country chairs of birch, pine or alder, which were painted. Mahogany became fashionable in England in the 18th century, and in Sweden it became more common around 1800. Stick-back chairs such as the Windsor chair have a thick seat of solid wood, often elm, with legs and spindles bored directly into it.

The finish has changed most. Linseed-oil paint was long the usual paint, shellac polish became common in the 19th century, and modern spray lacquers belong to the 20th. A chair that has been stripped down to the wood has lost some of its history, but the old paint often remains in corners and joints. Arts and Crafts chairs such as the Morris chair show the joints on purpose, whereas older chairs hide them. The English Chippendale chair has a guide of its own.

Wear and repairs

Honest wear is found where hands and feet have rubbed: on the front stretchers where feet were rested, on the arms and on the crest rail. Stretchers worn all round, or even wear everywhere, are suspicious. Paint that has flaked and shows several layers one under another points to long use. If paint has run into cracks and old damage, the chair was repainted after it was damaged.

Many old chairs have been repaired. A new leg, a new back rail or a replaced seat frame is common and does not make the chair false, but it must be taken into account. Compare the wood, colour and tool marks between the parts. The same method is used for chests of drawers in the guide to dating an antique chest of drawers, and the guide chairs worth knowing shows the main types. The timeline of chairs and the detail drawings by period are on the page about furniture.

How to recognise it

Exercise

A chair in the Gustavian style has machine screws with a pointed tip and curved saw marks under the seat. What is the most likely conclusion?