Featured Chair Identification Help

Hello all, I was hoping for some assistance with this chair. This is one of two that I got from a friend. They are part of a dining set, but these are the only two to survive. His in-laws bought them at an estate sale a few decades ago. They were told they are Spanish circa 1900. They have old woodworking techniques and older hardwear in their construction, but have things like MADE IN SPAIN stamped in English on the bottom and foam cushioning. I think they are old but have been worked on at some point in their life. They also have VIIII stamped on the bottom. I can't find any other examples if these, but I am sure they were mass produced. Any help would be great. Thanks.

 

Hi and WELCOME to ANTIQUERS, @HollowTreeArt !! With all those bracket bracing supports, it kind of looks like your chair might have been THROUGH the Spanish American War!!!! I'm not great with many of these dates, But there are others here that ARE, so a SHOUTOUT to @verybrad, @pearlsnblume & @SBSVC, plus anyone else who'd like to chime in!!! The others WILL be along, so be patient!!!

 

WELCOME HollowTreeArt !!! ... Joy.

 

Not a form I am familiar with. I do think 20th century and mass produced. Would think pre-WWII but not as early as 1900, so likely between the wars. The roman numerals would identify the chairs that belong to the same set.

 

There is, however, no such number as "VIIII."

 

Not by our convention but do see this on old Continental furniture frequently.

 

Your chair appears to be a Made in Spain version of a Mexican chair from the 1940s. Credited to the architect Luis Barragán as the "Miguelito" chair but, according to this Architectural Digest article, designed by Cuban designer Clara Porset as the "butaque" chair. The magazine gives it as "a Colonial-era hybrid of Spanish X-frame chairs and pre-Columbian ritual duhos." I would think it dates to the 1950s (because vintage Spanish items typically look older than they are.)

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/the-story-behind-the-design-of-the-iconic-butaque-chair

Debora

 

"Great Caesar's Ghost!"

 

I'd agree on post war - that's based on it saying Made in Spain as much as anything, that really didn't happen before.

The VIIII thing happened here, too.

 

Hi,
There was a time when Roman numerals did not do the subtraction such as lX as nine so V1111 was used. XVllll was used as lXX. It only happened on smaller numbers. People forget a lot people did not know how to write as well as read.
greg

 

Not that it matters, but the two chairs should each have a different roman numeral on them. They were used to identify which chair in a matched set it was. The fact that your's has 9 on it, means it was probably a set of at least 10 originally.

 

What one would expect in post-Civil War Spain. There were government incentives to encourage large families.

Debora

 

JMHO.
under Franco the use of English was forbidden in schools and general use.
I believe it's before Franco; the whole theories that Spain opened its economy in the late 1950s doesn't stand the test of time IMO and is the same category of fairytales as the German Autobahn.
but there's still the possibility that they were made in the 60s for export; not sure if the Roman numerals aren't simply part numbers for the assembly workers.

 

Thank you guys so much for the info. I really appreciate it. Both chairs do indeed have the VIIII stamp underneath them. I am not sure what that means.

 

Hm? When I first started to visit Spain in the very late 50s and early 60s, English was being taught widely in schools and learning was encouraged, to boost tourism. Catalan, on the other hand.......

 

interesting. so they stopped it again when I started to visit Spain in the very late 60s ?

 

After my last post I went back and took a harder look at the other chair. I thought both had VIIII but I must have looked at the same one twice. The other one has XXII on it.

 

I was there in the late sixties as well, no problem with the people we came across learning and speaking English. They most certainly banned other lanuages like Catalan of course.

 

Wow, then that was a very large set, of 22 or more chairs. Maybe originally made for an office or restaurant or something? And what is going on with the head rest - that looks pretty uncomfortable like it would grind into your back or neck if you leaned back depending on how tall? If that is original it may be a clue to what the chairs were used for - salon?

 

Ya, those look funky. Part of the problem is they are broken and leaning forward. It looks like the leather part with the foam padding was maybe added later or at least redone at some point. That head rest is really the back rest. It comes up to about the shoulder blades.