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Antique Questions Forum / Re: Dining room set - Lifetime Furniture

« on: July 04, 2011, 11:30:29 am »

I promise to post "after" pics, but it probably won't be for a while, as my hands are VERY full with house renovating at the moment! 

I barely know which end of a sewing needle is the business end, but I think I might try to learn.  I know my mother-in-law re-upholstered some dining chairs of her own, so I can recruit her help.

I think the seats are totally open beneath the fabric - by which I mean, no wooden seat under there.  I pushed from the top and bottom, one hand on each, and could feel my fingertips touch.  I am thinking you are probably right that there are likely band springs running horizontally.  You are right that the seats are not very comfortable at present.

Oh, do you think the value is $450 as is today, or after the seats are all re-upholstered?  I want to get them into top shape for my own use, regardless, but it would be nice to know whether that money will be an investment, or not something likely to ever be recouped.

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Antique Questions Forum / Re: Dining room set - Lifetime Furniture

« on: July 03, 2011, 01:38:56 pm »

Thanks a lot, mart!  Very sorry about the pics - I didn't think anybody still used dial-up.  

I see what you mean about the style. We just bought a house built in 1908, and we've been furniture shopping because suddenly our Ikea furniture is not at home!  It's not Victorian, I'm told "late Queen Anne" with arts & crafts influences like quartersawn oak doors, but I think the set will be happy in our dining room once we get the place all put together.  

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Antique Questions Forum / Re: Dining room set - Lifetime Furniture

« on: July 03, 2011, 10:01:29 am »

Thought I would add a few more photos (I took loads)...

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Antique Questions Forum / Re: Dining room set - Lifetime Furniture

« on: July 03, 2011, 09:29:12 am »

P.S.  My interpretation of the label is that the second line is "Finish: Ven Ant," which I am thinking indicates an "antique veneer."  Agree/disagree?

P.P.S.  Hosman, is that a bengal in your profile pic?  I have an ocicat, and for a minute I thought that's what your pic was, but the face looks bengal.  Very pretty either way.  

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Antique Questions Forum / Re: Dining room set - Lifetime Furniture

« on: July 03, 2011, 09:26:43 am »

Thank you both for your replies!!    I fell in love with the set at first sight; the photos in the CL ad didn't do the carvings justice, and my heart skipped a beat when I first saw it in person.  I am curious about value, although I have NO intentions of selling it.

mart, what do you mean by "fixing" the seats?  They are pretty worn out; I'm just not sure what I should do to fix them.

hosman, I'm really looking for any input at all, including but not limited to:

1) As many opinions as I can get concerning the style & age.  I've been looking up Jacobean Revival furniture and while the legs seem right on, the only thing confusing me is that I haven't seen any that has the sort of elaborate carving detail on the chair backs; it seems like Jacobean has that sort of bubbly/twisting style of the legs, but not the more detailed carving.  According to one (unsubstantiated) source (see #2 below), Life Time Furniture introduced their Jacobean line in 1913, and by the 1920s "the company had changed direction and was making heavily carved European revival lines."

2) Any information on Life Time Furniture, aka Grand Rapids Bookcase & Chair Company - and ideally info on this line in particular.  (As I mentioned they seem to be best known for their mission furniture, which according to a couple different sites is considered on par, in terms of quality, with Stickley.)  This is the most helpful info I have found on the company, which is very limited: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Collectibles-General-Antiques-682/2008/2/Life-Time-Furniture-Grand.htm

3) Any comments on the wood type and construction.  I believe the chairs have mortise & tenon construction, because there's one leg that is pulling away a little from the cross-brace, and I could see the rectangular wooden joint.  I love walnut - once had a massive aquarium stand custom-built of walnut, so I'm quite happy that it seems to be walnut.

4) Comments on how I might treat it as there are various nicks and chips and scratches here and there.

5) Any comments on the upholstery & seats.  I'm thinking this is NOT the original upholstery?  The seats are not very supportive any more.  What should be inside the seats?  Springs?  There's definitely not wood in the seats.  I think they need to be reupholstered & probably need new seats.

6)  I am curious about value - particularly because I perhaps shouldn't put hundreds into redoing the seats if the set should turn out not be worth that much.  I know we got a deal as it stands because we only paid $240 for the entire set (plus a table protector pad, to go beneath a table cloth), and we probably couldn't get an 8' table w/6 chairs made of particle board & plastic veneer for that amount.

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Antique Questions Forum / Dining room set - Lifetime Furniture

« on: July 02, 2011, 08:34:57 pm »

Hi all, new here.  I would love any input I could get on this lovely dining room table & 6 chairs I just acquired via Craigslist.  I have had some opinions that it is Jacobean in style, but also that the ornate carvings are more Italian Renaissance.  So far evidence seems to point toward its being from the 1920s-1930s.  Today I found a "Lifetime Furniture" label on the bottom (pic below), but I am finding VERY little about that company online; just that Lifetime Furniture is actually a trademark of Grand Rapids Bookcase & Chair Company.  All the info I can find on them is focused on their mission furniture line, which this clearly is not!

Anyhow, here are some photos.  Any information would be appreciated.