Windsor Chair

Tom M

Well-known member
I found this chair on the side of the road thinking it would pay my son's college tuition! I see thing in it that make me think it is pretty old, but having made a Windsor chair myself in a local class by Ken Turner, there are things I see that confuse me. For instance the legs don't come through the seat. But then I look at the bow back and it seems so authentic. The seat caning (?) seems in extremely good shape, but I don't know much about this type of seat construction. The seat frame seems to be mostly held together by the caning.

So is this the greatest find in the 21st century, or just another project I'll never get to?

(I'm leaning toward another project I'll never get to...)



Tom
 

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Tom:

The legs do not always come through the seat on old Windsors.  I have on old Rhode Island/Connecticut Windsor in which they do not penetrate.

JD
 
Measure the same place (turnings) on the 4 legs with a dial calipers. If all 4 measure within a few thousands of an inch then it is a mass produced item. Do the same on the spindles.

Dennis Bork
 
Tom,
Your chair is not a period Windsor chair.  By definition a Windsor has a solid plank seat.  This rush seat style of chair was made in the early part of the 20th Century.  The seat was made that way as a means of copying the design of a Windsor while lowering its cost.  The rush is not actually rush, either, it is a paper product.  These chairs do not command a high price in the marketplace.  It might pay for a book.  PSP
 
Peter, what you say makes sense. I also took measurements with a caliper and dimensions were pretty close. Well one book is better than nothing!  Thanks for all of your comments.

Tom
 
Peter Storey Pentz said:
The rush is not actually rush, either, it is a paper product. 

Actually, I believe this example has a marram (seagrass) seat, but yes, it's twentieth- or even twenty-first-century. They were being made up until at least the second World War.
 
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