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Antique sofa and chairs, need help dating

4 years ago

last modified: 4 years ago

Two chairs and a loveseat, I cannot figure out the dating on this. My father said he thinks the wood is birch (but maybe he said beech?) - the stuffing is flax but that could be from a reupholster since it looks like there's some glue repair work done. Thanks for your thoughts!

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Comments (3)

User
4 years ago
It appears that it was stripped of it's old finish and redone in probably the 1980s by the new coloration. The dark smears on the underside of the chair shows where this was done. The stuffing looks more like what excelsior which is wood shavings.
Fori
4 years ago
When you redo these (you must!), be sure to have lots and lots of photos of that tufting/channeling on the backs. It's definitely worth getting that done properly.
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Well, if OP is twenty something I quess it's possible her GG GM could have been a young housewife in the twenties or thirties. Also the shape of the chair arms reminds me more of that era than MCM, but I guess it's possible to be either one. I wonder if in the reupholstering there were some modifications made to the chair profile? The chair legs could be anytime in that time frame or could be replacements?
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Pictures not showing up....try it this way. They are from the 1930's b y the style....but someone re did them....wondering what they were thinking when they did that! LOL! Linda C Here is a link that might be useful:
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Well what I found out is that its hard to find info on furniture from this era (between the wars). There's tons of info on Victorian furniture and mid-century modern is quite trendy these days, but 20s and 30s stuff tends to get overlooked. I went to the main Chicago public library downtown looking for info. I found a grand total of one book that was about art deco era furniture. Now that book happened to have a picture of a couch that was virtually identical to mine. The only difference was mine has the fancy flower carving on the arms and this one had the "rope" carving all around. I'm guessing that mine was the slightly more expensive version. This book dated the couch to the mid 20s but didn't give a manufacturer. The best place to look for that is in original sources, old Sears and Wards catalogs are great. They're hard to come by though. The only reason I know that mine had red plush upholstery is that the grandchildren of the original owners mentioned it to me. Good luck with your reupholstery. I'll check for pics after the holidays.
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I know the table in the link I've included below is not at all like your table, but for some reason as soon as I started reading your post I thought of Shelli's Alamode blog. She seems to pretty much favor more contemporary pieces, but I like how she mixes things up. Check out her dining room and see if that helps you at all. Also, I don't know that you need to tone down the silver of the nailheads, and I've used this product so can't give testimony as to if/how well it would work, but I've noticed people here and on blogs using something called Rub 'N Buff to change hardware colors and such. Oh, and here's her kitchen table in which she's used a dark table with some white slipcovered chairs. Here is a link that might be useful: Alamode blog
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Helen
4 years ago
I just had a chair with similar carving reupholstered - it is actually the second time I had it reupholstered because I bought it and had it immediately reupholstered and just had it redone.

I am fairly certain my chair is from the 1920's because my channel quilting seems to have more of an Art Deco influence although the chair itself is not really Art Deco.

It definitely is worth reupholstering and you can have fun with it. The first time I did a very traditional velvet but most recently I opted for a pattern on the advice of my designer. My friend had an old carved wing chair and also just had her chair done - again in a non-traditional material.

I had the wood spiffed up a bit with a subtle touch of gilding. The chair itself isn't a valuable antique but just a decorative comfortable chair so I wasn't worried about preserving "authenticity".

I don't have a better picture of the chair at the moment. The sofa is new but was a custom done by the same shop that reupholstered the chair based on an inspiration Art Deco sofa - I showed them the picture and they replicated it. I am still in the final stages so everything but the sofa and chair are being replaced and of course I am still hunting for a suitable rug - preferably Chinese Deco :-)

My friend's reupholstery of a classic wing chair which was probably from the 1920's. She bought the original green chair from the Salvation Army in the late 1970s.

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