Well, I,m afraid he has made a bit of a pigs arse...of doing them...and what value they did have has been diminished somewhat...This colour is all wrong...and the only thing that you may be able to do is rub them down and re-stain them to a more acceptable colour...see link, these will give you some idea as to what colour you can aim for...but on no account do you use a varnish stripper, because if these are made of dark oak, or elm or other hardwood...then if you use a chemical based stripper the wood especially oak, will turn black...and all you will be left with is an unholy mess....double zero steel wool should be used...
but not used on oak, because remaining traces of iron may react with tannins in the wood to produce blue or black iron stain. Bronze wool or stainless steel wool may be used to avoid this