Windsor Chair Age

good day all - thank you in advance for all your expertise, it is much appreciated, i have a windsor style chair, coming from an 80 year old man who said it was from his mother's house and he has had it all his life, so not sure how to date it, i have heard things about thickness of seat, spindles turned, and legs will be angled, i am in tennessee so also not sure of worth there is a paper taped to the bottom stating windsor chair, circa 1760 Henry Ford Museum, the gentleman tells me this is his mother's handwriting, this is all know

 

looks pretty clean for 1760.............
but , it could have been a de-accesion ... who knows...

@verybrad
@Ghopper1924

 

@James Conrad

 

I honestly don't see that kind of age, but we can wait for the real experts too!!!

 

I don't think so either, can't tell much with this photo except, it does not look like 18th C.

 

Definitely not. But you are correct, defining a Windsor can be mind-boggling in the scrutiny of the details and variations thereof. Go on-line to museum furniture collections to compare with features of known period pieces. For example, Winterthur- https://tinyurl.com/37mtb5ap

 

I would be more confident about a former museum piece if there was an accession number on it somewhere.

 

First thing I notice, the arms, all wrong for a period chair, ditto the seat, again, all wrong.
The style of OP chair is a sack back, the arms should be 1 piece of wood bent to form the arms with the spindles going thru on their way to the chair crest rail, not attached the way OP chair is.
Ditto the saddle seat, it should continue all the way to the edge of the seat, not a scooped-out bowl in the center.
18th C Windsor Sack Back

 

If trying to mimic a continuous arm Windsor, all wrong again.

 

Agree that this is not a period example. Can't tell much more from this one photo. Mother may have seen something similar at Ford museum and wrote the note. Similar is not the same.

 

No, the style of this chair is a bow-back with arms, and that is a proper 18th century chair style which is collected just like the others. So the style of OP chair is OK, but the details of construction are not.

Yes, that is one of many things where details are wrong, pointing to a later reproduction. That said, I always pick a Windsor style chair up to see how it is made, which is why I've discovered more than a dozen authentic period Windsor chairs in all different styles at minimal cost, often free. It doesn't hurt to look - so when you post pics here, PLEASE don't settle for a single out of focus shot because it doesn't tell the full story.

 

See what I mean? Tricksy chairs!

 

Furniture in general is tricky with photos alone, for some reason the camera just doesn't capture the details that are easily seen in person.
Add in everyone with a cell phone is a photographer with various degrees of skill and BAM! we got some issues!

 

Tricksy! False!

 

Sneaky! Wicked!

 

I don't know that chairs are any worse than any other antiques. Though certainly it is always hard when the OP fails to post decent picture. In the case of windsor chairs you need to start with knowledge of what the different period styles looked like. Here is a period version of this chair, bow-back with applied arms, from skinner (sold for $523 in 2019):

 

As I said, Windsors are tricksy. When you focus on the minute details- the spindle lengths, turning patterns and configurations; the shape and height of the crest rail, arm posts and legs; leg shape and splay; stretcher shapes and placements; seat size and shape; you begin to see a world of differences from one to another. Attributions are hard-won.