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eakinn_gw

old chair

EakinN
10 years ago

any thoughts on this chairs age? we think the legs may have been cut down.

Comments (7)

  • egbar
    10 years ago

    I would love to see photos of the side, back and bottom of this chair as well. very interesting!

  • EakinN
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    here is bottom

  • EakinN
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    here is side

  • jemdandy
    10 years ago

    The seat is solid wood and the side view shows that the top of the back curves to the rear much more than I expected. There are minimal bracing rungs between the legs, just barely enough for stability.

    Very often on old chairs, the front rung shows heavy wear where youthful occupants may have rested their feet. This rung does not show any such abuse, it may have been replaced, refinished, or the chair has not seen a lot of use.

    If this chair was part of a dining set, it would have been the head chair; The other chairs arond the table would not have had arms and may have had a simpler back.

    If the seat height from the floor is less than standard, then the legs probably have been shortened as you suspected. The legs could have been shortened to accomodate a person with short legs.

    If this were a rocker, I'd suspect it could have been a 'mother's chair' for holding and nursing a baby. The arms helps to support mom's arms and the seat is closer to the floor than normal to allow the mother to plant her feet on the floor without pressure on the underside of her legs.

  • chibimimi
    10 years ago

    I do see wear on the front rung, just where you'd expect it from years of people resting their heels there. The top has definite thinning -- gentle sways -- toward the outside ends.

    I wonder if this was originally a rocking chair and had the lower ends of the legs cut off when the rockers were removed. This would explain the unusual thickness of the lower legs. Some early rockers had a slot cut into the lower legs where the rocker was inserted; this part of the leg would be cut off when it was converted to a stationary chair.

  • egbar
    10 years ago

    I see some sort of markings on the seat in white (grease pencil/crayon/chalk?) Can't make them out, are they numbers? can you read them? It looks like the wood on the bottom of the one leg shown In the last picture is raw and not aged, the wood should be dark if it is old and untouched.... so I am thinking that it probably was a rocker that got removed from its runners. Look at the photo enclosed. Though it is a different style back it has similar turnings on spindles and legs, You can see where the rungs would lie low to the ground if the runners were cut off of it.

    Here is a link that might be useful: site where i got the chair image

  • egbar
    10 years ago

    further observations... if you look at the length of the legs in front and back, you will see they are not the same. cutting the legs off to make it a "regular" chair has caused it to look as though it leans back more than it would have as a rocker. It is probably fairly old but without being in original condition it is most likely not worth a whole lot. best wishes