Morris Chair?

[merdena]

I have an antique reclining chair with a brass plated bar across the back which is adjustable.  It looks like a Morris chair, but I have never seen a Morris Chair in which the upholstered portion of the chair is all in one piece, sort of a rounded "L" shape.  It looks more Victorian than Mission style to me.  The finish is really bad, and I was going to strip it and refinish and have it re-upholstered, but hubby thinks it might be valuable and that re-finish would hurt the value.  Has anyone seen a chair like this?  Thanks for your help.  Hope I am uploading the pic.

[mart]

Your chair is late Empire revival in style,, similar to Morris chair in appearance only !!

[frogpatch]

Every once and a while I need to disagree with my friend Mart. Morris Chairs were made right into the 20s in many different styles Thousands were given away by the Larkin soap company as promotions The Larkin 65 which is pictured in this article (see link) bears a striking resemblance to yours The original Morris Chairs were made is an Arts and Crafts style but as years went by different more elaborate style evolved to keep up with current decorating trends. Some actually had push button reclining mechanisms that replaced the rod. Sort of Lazy Boy forerunners There were also rockers. I have access to a news ad archive that shows many different styles from 1900 to 1923 all referred to as Morris Chairs

 http://homes.midmaine.com/~shaffer/history.html

[mart]

Morris style chairs were made by many different companies and today all similar chairs that recline are lumped together and called Morris chairs !!  But William Morris`s chair had the traditional arts and crafts line !!  I looked at a bunch of them and have not seen one with that style back and seat !!  It can still be called a morris style chair just not an original to his design !!

[frogpatch]

When they were sold as new, like the ad, they were collectively called Morris Chairs The one adapted by William Morris and his firm was a very early example of Arts and Crafts design like Mart says.  Just like a Lincoln Rocker or Jenny Lind Bed they were adopted names