Leontuberman: I completely disagree with what you posted, and it is misleading to folks looking to learn about what makes a great windsor chair. While you offer a less expensive alternative to a correctly made bore and wedge Windsor, you do a disservice to the forum members by stating they are superior in construction which anyone in the trade or who knows furniture history clearly sees as incorrect. Your chairs are modern plank-seated, glue socket chairs. Let me tell you about what you make: 1) Because the chairs are not deeply scooped in the seats, you have to shorten the rear legs to keep people from sliding off the front of the chair. While it works for short period of times, that tends to cut off the circulation in the legs after a while and become uncomfortable. A properly made Windsor has a deeply scooped seat on a horizontal base plane. We won't even go into the strip-board construction of your seats. 2) Glue socket chairs rely on the glue bond to hold the leg in place. When the glue bond weakens with use and over time as they all do the chair becomes wobbly and must be disassembled and re-glued to prevent total chair failure. A bore and wedge design does not weaken the spindle, and in fact reinforces the joint so that on compression from sitting on the chair, it is not relying solely on a glue socket joint for structural rigidity. That is pure nonsense to suggest your chairs will outlast a correct bore and wedge design. 3) A comfortable chair does not become so by having steam-bent spindles that conform to the lumbar of the spine. What make a chair back comfortable is designing the chairs with give or spring in the back to allow them to flex slightly under use. That is accomplished by keeping the chair light, thin, and using woods that will flex without breaking in the bow section of the chair. 4) As to weight of the chairs...the lighter a chair is, the less likely it is to tear itself apart if knocked over or down steps. Weight is not an indicator of quality, and they become harder to move around as well. Every quality bore and wedge maker of American chairs offers a lifetime guarantee against them loosening up. Warren Chair Works, Lawrence Crouse, J.L. Treharn, D.R. Dimes, etc. Do you offer that on yours? The Windsor Chair design began in England in the late 1600's / early 1700s, where it was a heavy, somewhat ornate chair. Colonial Americans adapted the design and in the process lightened the chair considerably in form and they were the very first chair that was affordable by the common man, typically costing $ 5.00 apiece in their heyday of the mid to late 1700s. Most were made in New York City (which has three large chair making operations in 1780, each capable of outputting over 200 per week), but there were also large scale Windsor operation in Philadelphia and Boston as well. You can identify the origin of an period chair by looking at the styling clues which varied by region. Virtually every 18th Century chair was painted green, and to find a surviving antique in the original green paint today makes them very valuable. In the early 1800s, the trend was to pain them white, red, blue or yellow over the existing old green paint, and that chair is still very valuable as a antique today if it shows the old green as the base coat. There were no stained American Windsors, and any period chair that is shown in all-wood has been stripped and refinished at some point. The American Windsor is one of the finest chairs every made when done correctly and made authentically. In it is the history of the United States itself, and I take great pains to study the style and form. There is so much history OF America, about AMERICANS tied to the Windsor chair design that you should try to learn about it rather then just trying to sell it to listmembers. Among my customer list whom have purchased from my store over the years are: * The Smithsonian, Museum of American History * Mount Vernon, George Washingtons homestead. * Gunston Hall, George Masons homestead * Carlyle House, Old Town Alexandria * Gatsbys Tavern, Old Town Alexandria * The Pequot Indian Museum, Connecticut * Walkerton Tavern, Richmond, Virginia And many small Bed and Breakfasts, along with private individuals restoring old homes. To learn more about the correct form of the American Windsor, source these books (long out of print, but still the best work): SANTORE, CHARLES The Windsor Style In America Volumes I And II - The Definitive Pictoral Study Of The History And Regional Characteristics Of The Most Popular Furniture Form Of Eighteenth Century America 1730 1840 Read the books, then come back to me and lets talk about form and construction. - Duane Collie

Beverly--thanks for the input. What do you mean by "Kind of brutal in its details," concerning the light I was considering for the entry? I like the center left light you have shown, but I don't believe it would work in our entry as the ceiling is two stories tall. Need something that will hang from a chain. The RH pendant I choice for over the island would be the smallest at 7" diameter, 11 3/4" high. Our island is approximately 103"x50" with 8' ceilings. I would go with 2 pendants. The next size up is 13" x 21". Thinking that would be too large. Not feeling the RH pendant for the dining room. DH and I went to light store this afternoon. We were told that for a 10' ceiling, the fixture should be at least 30" tall. Width depends on the width of the table. Ours is 42" wide, so they said fixture should be around 24". We went through catalogs and ended up fining one in the showroom that appealed to both of us, was at the right price, height was correct, but width was too wide. They suggested hanging at 35" above table rather than 30". What do you think of this one? It's from Artcraft. Think I will continue to look...

Check out these chairs by Bernhardt's contract line (i.e. commercial design, but homeowners can buy them too). The fabric is a felted wool with top-stitching and can be ordered in a zillion colors. Plus the handle in the back allows kids to easily drag it around the room wherever they'd like it to go. The handle is shown here in a contrast color, but I've seen them in my trade showroom with the same fabric as the rest of the chair. What's nice about contract furniture/fabric is the durability; will wear like iron. Find out who sells Bernhardt furniture in your local area and go through them.

Hi. First time poster. On the hunt to purchase these dining room chairs. Any leads or suggestions please. Thanks!