HELP! carved wood chair

The stretchers are the cross pieces that tie the legs together. Note that on yours and the modern copy, they are flat on the back side. On the museum example, they are carved all the way around. Having looked at a lot of antique chairs, I find that such lack of attention to detail is a fairly modern thing, leading me to the conclusion that your chair is most likely an old reproduction. The fact that the modern copy is virtually identical, reinforces this idea. The use of oak for your chair also points to more modern production. I would expect a period example to be in walnut, mahogany, or other more precious hardwood unless originally gilded. Even then, oak would not be the wood of choice. This chair may have been in production a very long time or is a copy of a known example.

I don't know how much you read about the chair in the museum link. There is both a short and long description with a lot of information about such chairs. There is also information about this particular example and the restoration of it. Fascinating stuff! (At least to me)

 

I like that the V&A Museum listing includes a PDF link, making it easy to save all of the detailed information that they give.

 

Hi,
When we were cleaning painted panels after the church fire spit is what the Met suggested. Five of us used about 3 gallons of spit, ours and everyone who wanted to donate. We kept it in a frigerator. A brush full of it over a six inch square, let it sit for 10 minutes and then wiped it off with mineral spirits. These 10 panels were 6 ft high and 30" wide. One girl was so worried about catching TB, she wore a mask and gloves. The rest of us gave up after a couple of hours.
greg

 

that is the funniest thing I've ever heard. I got the chair for my college apartment but now i don't want to do anything to it or let anything happen to it.

 

Yeah, co-ed life can be hard on furniture.............Put a velvet rope across the seat and prop up a placard that reads: Throne from the Pitti Palace, Please do not touch.....................learn a bit of Italian, smile smugly and let your college mates think what they want...............

 

Im not sharing the apartment with anyone so i don't have to deal with my roommates bringing drunken idiots home. And my boyfriend is helping me restore a lot of my furniture. So i know he won't mess anything up. most of the stuff i have isn't older then the 50s so I'm not nervous doing anything to that stuff.

 

Owned -- I do love odd factoids!

 

Me too, silver.