Low Back Windsor Chair

[frogpatch]

I was lucky to find this at a yard sale a couple weeks ago for 15 dollars. On the underside it is written "L F Ward, Piermont, N.Y." I thought that was the name of the maker of the chair but after some research I found out the Levi F Ward was a businessman who sold tin and iron products including roofing and stoves in the 1850s. He was born in 1827 and had a wife and four children and was involved in the temperance movement. After 1860 I could find no record of him except a map of the town from the 1870s that shows the home of a Mrs. L Ward. He may has passed or gone into the war to never return. Because he would have been 34 and married I do not think that's the case.
My question is: Do you think that he made this chair for his personal use or just put his name on it in case it was borrowed and never returned? Also when do you think it was made?  It has been repaired so many times and refinished at least once. You can see the threaded braces and the nails in the joints. I hate that but I am going to leave them. I did find out the simplicity of it makes it later and factory made or made by a rural craftsman / owner, but which? 
By the way the desk was a 25.00 find the same week. I am sitting in the chair at that desk while I am writing this and the pages I write to make scratch out a living.

[Oceans64]

I don't have much info but wanted to comment what a nice find!  I agree the name probably shows ownership - not maker.  34 and married wouldn't stop him from fighting in the war but I didn't find him on the New York Muster Roll I checked - probably not 100% tho.  Many ways to serve other than volunteer and lists get lost.

http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/military/civilwar/mr/index.html Even better database here - but no Levi: http://iarchives.nysed.gov/CivilWarWeb/soldiers.jsp

Interesting!  I hope others can find out more.

[frogpatch]

Thanks for checking! I also found out that he was secretary of Wawayanda Lodge. I used to fish in lake Wawayanda in Northern NJ for years but I wonder if that is where the lodge was. 

[talesofthesevenseas]

That is VERY cool that you've got the name of a person connected to this chair! I am betting this is a family piece and that it was his chair and he made for himself and I bet that he also made little repairs to it over the years. That is exactly the kind of thing that people did then, reinforced wobbly chairs and patched things up as needed and continued using them. A business person marking his product would have had a stamp, burnished his name or something more professional looking and less personal. I think you've got a real treasure here! That is so cool that his name helps to date the chair too!

Fifteen bucks? Did you say fifteen bucks? I think that qualifies as one of the better scores of 2011!

[talesofthesevenseas]

This also falls into the time period of "Arts and Crafts Movement" furniture. Here's a timeline:
http://www.victorianweb.org/art/design/craftschron.html

[frogpatch]

Yeah it was 15 bucks. We actually made a deal for 40 bucks for two stoneware crocks with lids and a hand carved bread board and one or two other things that my wife wanted. 
I never would personally relate this to Arts and Crafts. To me that is  Morris, Stickley, Prairie School, Roycroft  and that style. I just wrote an article on Arts and Craft homes Charlotte for a home remodeling contractor. Those homes were built in the teens and twenties. True the artists were born in the mid 1800s. Thanks

[Rauville]

I can picture Levi claiming that as his favorite chair at the lodge, while compiling the minutes of the monthly meeting. "Hey, that's my chair...It's got my name on it". 

[talesofthesevenseas]

I have a lot to learn when it comes to furniture, so thanks for the correction!

[frogpatch]

This was not hard to find. It is located in the same area. It is apparently an Odd Fellows Lodge. Note the founding date on the emblem

http://lodgepoint.com/Wawayanda315/

[mart]

I have been looking for pics of the repro`s of your chair made in the 60`s !! My mother had the set with the round to oval table that came with all of them  !! It was the typical hard rock maple that everyone was using back then !!  Then,, we called the style Early American !! Only difference was the later repro`s had contoured seats !! Yours does not !!  I would call your chair " colonial transition" for lack of a better term !! Can`t see the construction well enough for a date but could be mid to late 1800`s !!  Did you ask about the chair when you bought it !! Might have found a bit more history !!
I am particularly interested in seeing that little Sheraton/Hepplewhite style desk that you got with this deal !!

[frogpatch]

The chair seat is made from one solid piece of wood with the grain running side to side, rather than front to back and pieced together like later construction, indicating that it is a mid 1800s design. The really early Windsors had the legs go right through the seat and were more elaborate, and detailed with twice as many spindles.
 I have the ads that Mr Ward placed in his prime in the 1850s. There was much about him in the local papers and in the 1860 census and then the trail ends abruptly. His wife is shown living in a home in 1870 apparently alone. A map shows the house as "Mrs L Ward."  I even know the names and ages of his children. I emailed the secretary of the Wawayanda lodge where he was also secretary in the 1850s and also I emailed the Head of the Piermont Historical Society, but neither replied.The person I bought it from new nothing, but how much more do I need to know at this point? He was born in 1827 and was living in 1860 at 33 years of age. Wife named Jane P Ward and 4 children. He was a merchant of tin and iron products and had a couple of business partners at times named Auryensen and Demarest. He took over the business from one of them (Auryensen) in 1853 according to an ad regarding who to pay bills to from that point forward.

The desk was purchased in a thrift store in NJ the same week. It wasn't part of that deal. It is a Sheraton style writing desk, like you said Mart, from the mid 20th century. It has faux burl drawer panels and oak dovetailed drawer sides. The top is black, hard and textured like leather but I think it is a fake finish. It is, fortunately, in good shape and a quality piece. I use both pieces together for writing on the internet until the hard seat gets to me. I need to find a cushion for the chair. I love the brass details on the desk legs.

[KC]

Have greatly enjoyed reading this thread!  Great find with history frogpatch!

[mart]

The history is part of the fun of antiques !! Both are great finds !!

[frogpatch]

Here is all the information from the research I did. I hope you find it interesting. I have copies of the original documents to support it. Mostly news clippings.

Factory Made Low Back Windsor Chair circa 1850

Owned by
Levi F Ward, Piermont NY
Born 1827 Died 1872

1860 Census information
Levi F Ward age 33  Rockland NY   Born about 1827
Jane P Ward age 29
Esther age 9
Emma age 7   Registered later in school for the blind in Batavia NY
John age 5
Julietta age 2

Death Notice
Dec 2nd 1872 age 49 years 9 months 29 days
Discrepancy with age in census information

Partner in Ward and Auryansen Stove, Tin and Iron Merchants and Tin Roofers
Piermont NY, partnership dissolved in 1852. Reinstated a few years later then purchased by Mr. Auryansen.

Original Secretary of Wawayanda Lodge. Sparkill NY Masonic Order 1853 (still in operation)
Senior Warden in 1862

Exemption from draft listed in 1864

Officer of the Sons and Daughters or Temperance along with wife, Jane P Ward 1869

Owner of at least two houses both listed for sale, in Piermont NY. One very small, the other 9 rooms with a sweeping bay view and stable, grape vines, large water cistern and tin roof.

[Oceans64]

Thanks for posting that Frog.  I think this is one of the neatest finds I've seen here in a long time!

If you ever decide to get rid of the chair, I think you have an automatic buyer with the Wawayanda Lodge!!