Posted 12 years ago
gforce1108
(12 items)
I'm actually still restoring this set of 5 chairs. 4 are fully refinished with one still in progress. I've recovered one seat and have the materials for the rest.
I believe that they are mahogany. There is a burl veneer across the upper back and in the center of the lower back. After making structural repairs, I stripped, sanded and stained with a red mahogany stain followed by a semi gloss urethane.
I'm not sure how old these are - they have been recovered several times. There is still remnants of the original materials and hardware and I think some of the original padding. It looks like horse hair? Appears to have been a burlap type material tacked across the frame with the horse hair padding. There was two other layers of padding. I've removed, but saved the padding and a number of the original tacks and used modern webbing and foam.
I couldn't find any markings anywhere on the chairs to help ID them.
I've been doing some research to find out more information about these. From what I found, these would be considered New York Federal style. Similar chairs were listed as being made around 1815-1820. I knew they were old, but I wouldn't have guessed that. Of course I have not been able to confirm anything.