Featured When were these chairs made?

Tap them, see if any dust comes out. If it doesn't, worms are long dead.

I'd think late 19th ish, the range davey said. OP is in the UK, from that power point, and that supports that these look from over here. The sacking has been decently redone, and with that velvet, I suspect someone got at them in the late 80s or early 90s. It's FAR too pale.

Carving is Art Nouveau in style, with the shape of the chair starting to have Deco influences.

They need a good clean down, brushing, darker wax and a rich dark fabric on them. I'd go for deep red or bottle green, myself - or a dark rust maybe. Peel the gimp braid off, and then gently take the velvet off. You can leave the sacking alone. If you can't find an old mattress, then you can buy fire retardant padding on Ebay or whatever. You'll need a glue gun or a steady hand with tacks, but it's not a hard job.

 

Thank you so so much everyone. I really appreciate you all taking the time to look ar my chairs. I'm pretty sure there is no active woodworm in them fortunately.

I will clean up the peeling varnish and reupholster them. Thank you so much for the tip about using an old matress. Luckily we have 2 in the garage waiting to go to the tip. I'll post some photos of the finished result.

 

Yeah, GOOD IDEA! It looks like something went wrong there with newer finish, it didn't appear to "stick" to the old.
If going to recover anyway, good opportunity to fix varnish issue as well.

 

I suspect the original finish was oiled and waxed. The new didn't stick to it.

I would strip, oil stain and wax. No sealer.

 

Welcome, Digger. Those are very nice Art Nouveau chairs.

Great, we will definitely tag you.

 

Would you suggest that I strip the chairs using a wire brush? Would it be a good idea to use some sort of stripper aswell? I don't want to damage the wood. Many thanks for your advice.

 

nooooooooooooooo, don't do that. Any chemical paint/varnish stripper should do, most are "water wash" these days.

 

I'd not use a wire brush or a chemical stripper. If it's old 1980s varnish, then a damn good rub with a damp microfibre cloth will get most of it off.

 

Thanks @James Conrad and @Ownedbybear. I will keep the wire brush well away from them . As you can tell, I'm a complete novice

 

Welcome to Antiquers, @Digger -- We look forward to your contributions to this site!

 

Thanks so much. Have started on the removal of the velvet today. So many staples and tacks to remove! Hoping I can make a good job of the upholstery. They need a fair bit more filling on the seats than they did have!

 

Have started to remove the velvet. Looks like a bit has been added to the seat to raise up the front. Either that or it's been replace. The wood that the sacking is attached to is much newer

 

Yikes - No wonder they were uncomfortable.

Don't know if you have chosen what you want to recover in. So here are some examples of the same time period so you get an idea of what they might look like in a certain color.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ladies+parlor+chair+1890s&FORM=HDRSC2

 

Have to echo the sentiments of others. 1890-1910 pretty well says it.

 

I'm not familiar with English upholstery techniques, but in the US I would have expected this chair to originally have had hand-tied coil springs. They would give the seat the proper loft and support. Here's a how-to link... rather daunting but perhaps the proper way. https://www.designsponge.com/2011/08/upholstery-basics-constructing-coil-seats-part-i.html

 

Thanks for the link. I've not got any fabric yet. I'd quite like something with a bit of a pattern. Will see what I can get hold of

 

Thanks. At present they have 2 straight springs running front to back across the seat. They are attached with pieces of sacking. Was thinking of taking them out and replacing with something else as they make the seats so uncomfortable.

 

Can you show the springs please?