A quick guide to antique chairs
Why get into old chairs?
When I started trying to learn more about antiques I looked about for a good place to start. I wanted to be able to look at old stuff and have a pretty good idea how old it was, where it might have come from and what design/ cultural influences I should be seeing in it.
So I decided to start with chairs. Antique chairs are ridiculous cheap and easy to find. And I thought that if I could get a good understanding of chairs then this would help me look at other antique furniture with a more informed eye. I’ve been getting into chairs for almost a year now and I can tell you that this is a great place to start!
Getting started quickly…
So I wanted to share a little of what I’ve learned in the form of a quick learning tool. In 5 minutes you should be able to identify and understand a bit more about (most) antique chairs made between 1750 and 1850.
Here’s what one of the screens in the tool looks like to give you an idea:
I’d love to hear what you think of this tool and whether you find it useful.
Give it a try — it will open in a new browser screen. I’d love to hear your comments here.
Testing out your chair knowledge
If you’ve got antique chairs in your home then this tool should help you to start understanding them a bit more. If you don’t then why not hit pause occasionally in your next Netflix period drama binge and and see what you can spot (and maybe catch out the set designers with something that’s not right!). Shows like Bridgerton are and the original Pride and Prejudice are good for this…
Or if you’ve tried out the tool and you want to give yourself a quick test, try the picture at the top of this post — you should be able to spot at least 3 chair types in there.
How I’ve been learning this stuff
Most of what I’ve learned about old chairs has been from some mega geeky books from the Antique Collectors Club. These are great but can be quite cumbersome to navigate, particularly for beginners. This is one of the reasons I wanted to try and make this tool — to see if I could make the learning process a bit quicker and easier.
But if you really want to geek out then a good place to get started (if you’ve got the time) is something like John Andrews’ “British Antique Furniture”
Understanding the cultural context of old chairs
As part of the ‘History of the world in 100 everyday antiques’ series I’ve already written a couple of stories about some of the chairs I’ve acquired (both under £50) as part of my learning journey:
These go into more detail about the design of the chairs and their historical context in terms of social history, culture, politics, industrialisation and design movements.
