Birch side chair with caned seat and back.

FPF279

Birch side chair with caned seat and back.

1900-1910

Birch side chair with oval back and caned seat and back.

This stained birch side chair has a moulded and caned oval back, with continuous moulded back posts and legs. The caned seat frame has a moulded edge, shaped sides and a serpentine front. It rests on seat rails which are also moulded. The front legs are squared at the top and reel-turned and fluted below, with ‘toupie’ feet (toupie is French for a spinning top). The back legs are square-section, tapering and flared. The chair is stained to resemble mahogany.

The chair is a reproduction made in the early 20th century. It can be compared to late 18th century oval back chairs in the collection including: FPF202, FPF203, FPF204 and FPF205. Reproduction furniture was popular in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, allowing the middle-classes to purchase 17th and 18th century styles at affordable prices. This model shows a common feature with reproduction furniture, in that it is very often lighter, less substantial and of slightly smaller dimensions than furniture made in the earlier periods. The use of birch rather than mahogany is a further indication that this was an inexpensive chair.

Poor finish: the original finish may have been stripped and the chair re-stained and finished.

Birch.
Cane.

H. 94
W. 48
D. 51

Not recorded but in the Collection prior to 1993.