Dining Chairs - What have I bought?

[yellofruit]

Hi,
I recently bought 4 wooden dining chairs with a view to painting them and re-upholstering more to my taste.
This will be a summer project - so in the meantime I thought I had better find out a bit more about them in case I was about to ruin something lovely.
Any help concerning the age / style / likely provenance of these chairs would be really helpful (as I always like a story!)
Also, do you think it would be a crime to paint them?

They have sprung seats - the upholstery is evidently not original, but has very little wear. Thin varnish layer is worn, spotted and bumped in places. As far as i can tell they have the same wood throughout and the same carving motif on each. They are heavy and very solid.

I paid £30 for the 4 chairs - which even if they turn out to be replicas / mish-mashed designs I am very happy with as they were bought to be practical day to day furniture.

Thanks in advance, Hannah

[talesofthesevenseas]

Can you turn one of the chairs over and photograph the underside of the seat showing how the legs are attached? Then we can see how the construction was done. This is good way to get an approximate date on the chair.

[yellofruit]

Thanks for your interest talesofthesevenseas .
The light isn't so great here now, but I have turned the chairs over and too the following photos of the underside.

The springs can clearly be felt through the sacking! will have to do something about that...

I can't see anything special about the underside, but then I'm no expert!
Hope these help....

[frogpatch]

They appear to be quite old, hand carved and they also look like walnut. I can't really help with the identification as European furniture is way out of my realm. Brighten them up with a fabric you like, but, please do not paint them. They have a lot of character that you will cover up and a patina that will be destroyed. It took a long time for them to look old. A good cleaning will brighten up the finish a few shades without detracting from the character. Do not strip them either.

[mart]

From what I can see they look like 40`s or even later !! I would suggest since you are going to recover them anyway wait and take a few pics after the fabric is off and post them here !!
 That way we can see the actual construction and make sure !! Take a good pic of the entire leg as well !!

[yellofruit]

Thank you all for your replies so far... interesting suggestions.
I'll be sure to take photos when I remove the fabric.

[talesofthesevenseas]

The nail heads that I can see look good. Zooming up close I can't see any signs of modern mass-produced machining on the heads and there is some black patina around them, but we'll know more when you get under the fabric! If you haven't taken on a reupholstery job before, have a look in the projects section. There are several detailed posts on reupholstering projects. It's easier than it looks and a lot of fun!

[cogar]

If you carefully remove the burlap from the bottoms you should find 4 screws that fasten the seat on. Remove the seat then you can remove the tacks holding the fabric on.

And I’m guessing the upholstery on the back is tacked in place around its outer edge and the ribbon “thingy” is glued on top to cover the tacked-edge. Take the ribbon off and then remove the tacks.

You probably can't save the ribbon but don’t destroy the old fabric pieces because you can use them as a “pattern” for cutting the new ones.

[yellofruit]

Until I remove the fabric in June - a little update on some visual research I have been doing - does anyone think I might be completely off-track to say the chairs might be late Victorian?
Here are my clues - all these images come from auction websites listing the chairs as 'late victorian' and / or walnut (as suggested by frogpatch)

- Shape of the tops of the outer uprights
- Carved front legs, straight back
- Curly motif
- General condition of the wood

These examples are a lot more decorative than the chairs I have bought, but the auction prices are in keeping with what I paid.

[talesofthesevenseas]

Look up close at the "stippling" the recessed background in the design of the chair. See if it is a consistant pattern made by a machine, or if it is inconsistant and possibly done by hand. Here's an example of some stippling done by hand:

[talesofthesevenseas]

Also examine the chairs from one side to the other and compare one chair to another looking for inconsistancies. Inconsistancies are good and would indicate individually made chairs, not later mass-produced chairs.

[yellofruit]

Oooh! Thanks talesofthesevenssea s..I am a bit excited now.

The carving at the top of each chair has inconsistencies between each one, lines a little longer or wider, different depths carved out.
The stippling appears to have been made using a tool with several 'pins', so whilst they appear to be in rows, they are worked around the raised part of the carving and differ slightly on each chair.
When planning to paint the chairs, this was the area I had reservations about and thought I would paint around the carving, leaving it as is.