Video: Slat Back 18th Century Chairs: Part 2

Learn more about slat back 18th century antique chairs in this free video on furniture collecting and collectibles.

Comments

WickerWoman Jul 06, 2008

Sue, I listened to all of your videos in the series, "Collecting 18th Century Chairs" and enjoyed it very much. However, I had to take issue with one comment you made about the paper rush seats. I've been in the seatweaving and wicker repair business for well over 30 years and it's been my experience that the paper fibre rush stands up to wear and tear much better than its counterpart and predecessor, natural bulrush or cattail leaf rush. I am one of a handful of chair caning experts across the country that still does the hand-twisted cattail and bulrush seats and even studied the process in England under the guidance of author, teacher and rush seat weaver, Olivia Elton Barratt. Although the natural rush seats stand up very well, the paper fibre outlasts it, especially if the seats have been treated with varnish, poly, shellac or some other clear coat as they should be. Keep up th

Video Transcript

Another thing I wanted to show you about this what happens sometimes to these chairs so if you look down the side of this chair you can see these both sides of this chair you can see a warp in this chair. If you look straight down I don't know if you can see this one tends to go out and this one tends to go forward. I think that has a lot of character I'm sure it's exaggerated to much it's not going to be beneficial if your collecting these chairs for resale. This is not something actually a positive thing to happen but you can see this natural way of the wood is turned outward and turn inward. So I like it I think it has a lot of character to the chair this is really nice example you can see some of the ware not a lot but some of the ware on these rungs here. There made out of mixed wood you'll find that these seats the earlier ones will have turnings on the sides and will be flat square the tops will come square together. You see them on the banister backs that I showed you they have those types of not the round turnings but this is another example of an 18th century chair. So when looking for these chairs the thing I try to tell people is to look for replace rungs or if the bottom are really worn on them your going to see that these chairs are going to set much lower, there not going to be comfortable to sit in. This one has a nice height to it and the back is a very comfortable chair to sit in. So one of the chairs that I like to collect that I actually like to use are these type of 18th century chairs.

Slat Back 18th Century Chairs: Part 2

Comments

Related Ads

Related Articles & Videos