Arts and Crafts dining set

Hi everyone,

I found a set of what appears to be six Arts and Crafts dining chairs in an antique shop in South Africa. While I found the chairs in South Africa, I think it's plausible that they were manufactured in Britain. South Africa was a British colony at the time, and I believe furniture was brought over. I also can't find any evidence of furniture like this being made in South Africa.

The research I have done seems to indicate that these have all the indicators of late 19th century or early 20th century Arts and Crafts. It also seems like the carving might be a stylised sunflower and that the overall design might have been influenced by Anglo-Japanese design. However, I can't find any exact matches for these chairs online.

The dimensions of the chairs are: Height 86 cm, width 44, depth 42.5. I measured the height to the top of the beam on the side of the backrest, but I think it would be a bit higher to the top of the carving.

One other interesting point is that the same antique shop had a stand-alone chair for sale that, while a lot more ornate, seems to have structural and stylistic similarities with the set. I wondered if it might be part of the same collection. Unfortunately, it was sold by the time I got there, but it can still be viewed on their site here.

When I first saw the chairs, I was really struck by how modern their design seems to be given their apparent age. I was sufficiently interested in them that I bought them. So, I'd really appreciate any thoughts on them, including their style and likely origin. As I said, I am a real amateur on the topic and, so, any insights would be appreciated.

 

The motif does look more like a Japanese chrysanthemum to me but wait for others.

 

Welcome Steve.

I agree, they are Arts and Crafts, nice chairs.
I don't see any Japanese influence, but let's wait for the others. To me the sunburst/floral motif looks inspired by European Empire furniture.

 

While I see some hold-over from the arts and crafts movement, I think these are later and not particularly arts and crafts. In particular, the legs harken back to much earlier styles and the medallion is too over the top. Arts and crafts decorative motifs were generally more restrained and stylized. I would put these circa 1930 and more of a mish-mash of styles, as was the penchant at the time.

 

I agree with verybrad, how kind of him to express my vague thoughts so clearly!

 

A mind reader?

 

I'm certainly not the furniture expert that he is but I like to think that I know a little something. I generally look at a piece and get a vague sense of it that, about 70% of the time, turns out to be right, once the furniture gurus such as @verybrad and @Ghopper1924 have chimed in with their clearly expressed analyses. So I ride on the backs of their expert coattails and continue learning...

 

As do many of us!