I like the first chairs just a little better, but the apple back set is lovely. How funny that you are looking at these, since I just bought a set of shield-back chairs with their table off Craigslist last weekend! Mine had to have the seat guts removed and my DH made a plywood seat for them. The table top needs some refinishing and I need one more chair. I keep finding nice sets for several hundred dollars, but this set was only one hundred with a lot of work ahead.

Red

I think the swag on the first is a bit much for me, as a set. I think I'd have to 'see' them in the room. Beautiful chairs, and I love the Sweethearts :)

I prefer the first ones - they have a shield appearance, and I like the swag detail.

The second ones are charming, but too rounded for my tastes.

I'd sit in them first. You may find one very comfy and another very uncomfy. Other than that they're both pretty, with the first one being a bit more formal.

I think the first set are more formal and may be a better fit for your dining room. I like the swag and tassel on the back. You are lucky to have to choose between 2 lovely sets! Sue

As long as we're all inspired with Val's finds, isn't this a beautifully romantic piece. Wish I had a place for it!

Here is a link that might be useful: Duncan Phyfe Bed

Thanks for the responses--seems that many prefer the first chairs. Squirrel, you said that you'd need to see the chairs in the room--so I here are a couple pictures of my dining room.

I think I prefer the more rounded chairs because they are less like my existing chairs (which don't look too bad in the photos, but they really do need work). Les, your thoughts that the chairs were a bit too rounded for your taste got me wondering if perhaps they are too "frou frou" for the room. Maybe I should just keep what I have and keep looking, but it's not easier to come across complete sets of older dining room chairs that are in mint condition (so the seller says, I will see).

Redbazel, I saw the photo of your shield back chair and it is just gorgeous. Squirrel, that bed is to die for!

Thanks for your help!

I would remove the drawer from the sideboard and take it with you when you go to view the furniture. I like both sets but seem more drawn to the second set. Either one would be a good choice in terms of style so I'd probably let condition and how well the chairs match the remaining furniture be the deciding factors. Sigh. How I envy those of you who can come buy these beautiful old things so easily. So not the case out west.

I prefer the sweetheart chairs between the two. I don't care for the juxtaposition of the carved swag with the very flat splats of the chair back. It looks a little stuck on to me. I looked at hundreds of shield back chairs so I know exactly what bugs me and what doesn't. :)

So, Lisa, what DO you like in shield back chairs and what bugs you? (anyone who isn't thick-skinned like me should stop reading, just in case........) I just bought my first set and am entranced. Like you, I see some I love and some I don't, but right now, I'm just working on getting my set up to scratch so I can augment with at least one more, (maybe 4 more) chairs. Mine have veneer aumentation on the fronts of the chair legs, which I think is cool. But I would love to know some hints on what to look for. So, hint me.

And Teeda........in that lovely room, I do think the sweetheart back chairs would add a beautiful look.

Red

teeda, I like the sweetheart back chairs.
I'd love to hear comments on this set I saw on craigslist last week.

Here is a link that might be useful: Antique Mahogany Round Table & Chairs

Well I'm a veneer ho so I'm already sold.

In any furniture, I would rather have something simple than something that is carved but not carved well/beautifully. This knocks most new and newish carved furniture right out for me (that is in my price range, I'm sure there is still exquisitely carved furniture being made SOMEWHERE, just not anywhere I can afford to shop).

Even in some older stuff the carving is just bleah to me. It isn't deep enough or it looks almost like it's "pressed" rather than carved. I like my carving to be deep, rounded, smooth (though just to confuse you more, I also love the look of lightly incised decoration like in eastlake furniture - but to me that's a whole other style I think). Some of the smoothness may be easier to find on older pieces because they've been touched over and over and may have compensated for any roughness in finish initially.

Also less expensive/mass produced chairs have the very flat splats that looks like they are punched/cut out of a flat piece of wood rather than "carved" even if very very simply out of a solid "chunk" of wood. teeda's current chairs have that sort of "punched out" look to the splats and the first chair that she shows has a similar look to me with an applique of carved stuff that really looks more pressed than carved to me. Also the way the "corners" on the carved part of the shield are on the first one - they are not as sharp as either the inside or the outside corner of the piece itself, which would bug me the same way those rounded routered corners on fake raised panel cabinet doors that are made from a solid piece of MDF rather than being assembled from a panel and frame bug me.

The sweetheart chairs have a more substantial feel to them. Maybe the avoidance of "sharp" corners makes it easier to make a reasonably priced chair that doesn't highlight any of the downsides to mass production techniques at the time. The splats look more solid and less "punched out" and have a minimal amount of carving that emphasize their more solid, "rounded" look but it's not so much intricate carving that you begin to notice the lack of artistry and quality in the carving in what was even new a modest priced piece (drexel is/was a good, solid brand but not super high end - I don't have a single piece of super high end anything in my house and tend to go for modestly priced well made pieces myself, so that's not an insult ;) ).

Here is a closeup of the carving on my chair, one of the very few carved pieces I have in my house. This is before it was cleaned and polished and redone so there is a lot of dust in the grooves, but this is the kind of carving that I like. Notice I said "that I like" and not that it's really any better, this is all just my personal taste. I found these chairs hanging from the ceiling in my friends' antique shop after he cleaned out his "back room."

To me it's sort of like the difference between a sawn baluster on a victorian era house's porch and a turned baluster. I prefer the look of the turned baluster although they both have their charm. IMO it's totally personal taste. I'm sure some people would find my veneer stuff (and all of the imperfections that come with that technique, like the occasional spot where the veneer gets chipped or bubbles up a little bit) to be ghastly.

I like the sweetheart chairs as they're more unusual. They'll also look great if you upholster the seats in the toile.

Here are the sweethearts! (You can just cover the original chairs in the air with your hand to block them out :) I think they're lilting and light-hearted! Can you share what they're asking, so we can all learn something on pricing and good finds? (No pressure :)

Beautiful room!

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Oh Squirrel, thanks so much for doing this! Before I even had a chance to read all those who replied and voted for the sweethearts (and before you photoshopped them) I got in the car and drove to Lexington (2+ hours away with Thanksgiving nightmare traffic) and bought the six sweetheart chairs. They were so beautiful in person. I actually just got back from the trip, so they're all still in the van. I paid $900. Not a super cheapo bargain, but well worth it to me. The quality (mid-century Drexel) is so wonderful compared to what I have now. The seller purchased them at an auction in Pennsylvania. There were actually two people waiting for me to show up at the house, because they wanted to buy them. (The seller was really nice and promised that since I responded first I had first dibs on them). I'll take some pictures tomorrow in the daylight and post them. Thanks again!

I think $900 is a great deal for those chairs! Even on ebay you will pay more than that.

I can't wait to see them in the room. I LOVE the sideboard. On second thought it absolutely doesn't go with anything else in the room. I'll give you $100 for it. :D

Wow, that's great! Certainly not cheap but definitely a good price! Nice seller! people often don't do that because of no-shows and such. Now I guess you'll Craigslist yours, lol.

Enjoy! and please post :) It looks very lovely and happy in there :)

Glad to hear that I'm the inspiration for some new Hepplewhite chairs. I love both the shieldback and sweetheart chairs, though I've come to realize mine were a real find with all the detail since the simplier style is very plentiful. It's amazing mine are quite similar to your first pic--I had to put them both against one another to compare, but I do think the detail work on mine is a bit finer.
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I'm glad you opted for the Drexel chairs. I also love the luster of the mahogany. It's nice to try a variation on the look since you've already had the shieldbacks. Are you going to reupholster them?

Valinsv, your chairs are beautiful and were absolutely a great find--especially for what you paid for the whole set! After seeing how nice your shieldbacks were I kept looking at my old ones and thinking YUCK. It seems that shieldbacks are having a surge in popularity--there were buyers backed up waiting to looks at the sets my seller had. I bought my first set back in 1986 from an old woman ($300 for the chairs, a gateleg mahogany table--which you can see under the mirror--and a small china cabinet which now holds books in my upstairs hallway), and for the longest time I was the only person I knew who had that style (everyone was into queen anne cherry sets back in the 80's).

The new chairs are now in the dining room and look just gorgeous--I'm so happy I got them. I was hoping to post a picture, but got home from work too late take a shot without a flash. I'll do it tomorrow. Yes, I am planning to recover the seats but fortunately the fabric doesn't look too bad in the room. I had recovered the other chairs three times in 20 years. Not real difficult but a time consuming pain. These will probably be more difficult because they are curved in the front. I look forward to seeing your living and dining room as they progress--I love your taste!

Teeda, so glad you got your chairs! And don't you just love a seller that sticks to their guns and waits for you when they know you have a ways to come? My seller waited for me two weekends ago when we had a couple of hours to drive to see her set. Of course, her set was in desperate need of serious help, so there was no line. But still...
And your competition had to be grinding their teeth when you drove up in the ChairMobile! Fun!

Valinsv, again..............Gorgeous! And they have the Prince of Wales Feathers! I've been working on a little info about these Hepplewhite chairs, but don't have much so far. The table that came with mine is quite lovely and I hope the top will refinish nicely. My chairs are getting a brown almost paisley patterned fabric because we all loved it and it doesn't show soil. I cannot wait to have my set done. Here's a chair from one of the seller's photos that caught my eye in the first place...

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Red

Teeda, how exciting! The chairs are just beautiful and I can't wait to see your pictures. I'm sure you're going to love them for many years.

Mry193, I think that set is very pretty. I love the table legs. That's not an "educated" opinion, just my artistic opinion. I'd be happy to have that set in my dining room, and the price is great. I've been casually searching Craigslist here and haven't seen anything that good at a price that good. Are you going to get them?

I definitely think Val's shield back are better quality than the first. Check the corners in particular, they are mitered and the profile of the carving turns the corners beautifully. The first looks like it's one solid piece and then routed out. Also the color on the carving perfectly matches the chair and is probably the same kind of wood whereas on the first one up top it looks more yellow to me and would make me wonder if it was a different kind of wood. I also really like the band 2/3 of the way down on Val's chair that breaks up the flatness of the splats.

red, those are pretty neat chairs too. It's interesting how ornate the carving is on the legs compared to the back, but it all looks nice in that pic. The back is a bit different than you see commonly, so that's cool too. I also really love chairs where the seat feels more upholstered rather than screw on and re-cover, but it costs more to have them redone - which means you'd better pick something you like the first time you have them done. I believe this is indicative of an older chair.

Sometimes a bargain is not such a bargain. The chairs I got were $100 a piece, which sounds good, until you realize that I gave them to a guy for a professional cleaning and polish and then reupholstering (the whole seat had to be rebuilt) and that added another $150/chair, but they are perfect. I bought the fabric myself on ebay for a steal (7 yards for 7 chairs, how lucky is that? I think I paid about $50 with shipping) I've been looking for more of the blue dragonflies for well over a year now and haven't seen it ANYWHERE.

Here's what the chair looked like before (broken seat, horrible old fabric, the cat loved it though)

After the cleanup/reupholstery:

very dusty floor, sorry, it was during a time when we were stil doing work.

I think it's funny that shieldback chairs are "back in" now. When I bought these from my antique dealer friends, they had them for years with no interest (of course I didn't know they had them because they were buried in the back room). I think they ended up selling them to me for less than they paid for them, just to get rid of them and they still ended up costing me a lot. I probably could have done some of that work myself (like the cleaning and polishing) but I was commuting 4 hrs a day at the time and was not looking for yet another DIY project.

teeda, So happy so you, hope you enjoy 20 years with this set also.
redbazel, great find, can't wait to see the entire set when finished.
oceanna, I first saw this set on craigslist a few weeks ago and just keep going back to it. I've been thinking I would like a round table in my small dining room but am having a hard time justifying buying this when I really want new furniture in the family room. And I would then need to find a china that would go with it, and we never use the dining room, and I don't have a truck .... I am prob the most indecisive person you'll ever meet :D

Teeda, Please do not forget to get us our picture! You know how much we like to see rooms when everything comes together.

Kgwlisa, I do much enjoy your thought processes on what you look for in furniture. While not at a loss for words in most situations, I find it very hard to express just exactly what draws me to one thing and not to another. I finally went into Barnes & Noble to look at antique books, since the few I own have more to do with buying at estate sales or refinishing, than with styles and value. It was incredibly interesting to see a number of Hepplewhite shield-back chairs in one book that had many photos. They rated one chair "Good" one "Better" one "Best". And in most cases, I wouldn't have been able to rate them in person. I wonder how your reasonings would have applied. I thought of you when I was reading.

My whole set, chairs and table, was just $100. I'm hoping that that will not only allow for reupholstering, but also for some refinishing on the table and maybe on a couple of chairs at least. Since I plan to keep these for myself, I didn't worry about rebuilding the spring & horsehair seat, but had DH make new plywood seats that can be foamed and batted and covered. A little gimp around the edges should cover the ancient tack holes.

I do hope that anyone else with this type of chair will post photos. I am really intrigued by the differences and wonder about the era of all that I see.

Red

Red--That is an amazing deal on your chairs. It looks like the upholstery is shot, but for that price and the lines on those chairs, I would be doing a happy dance! I love the lines on the front legs. Do share whatever you find out about the history. Yours look really old. Do you know the age?

teeda- I just wanted say that you have a LOVELY dining room! I really love that red!
Astrid