Reclaimed Armchair

Hey all

So i found this chair and it looked like it was a bit old.
From what i can see the it has passed through several owners . As can evidently be seen by the white cover hiding the purple seat cushion that was just stapled into the chair.
Only "damage" i could see is that the top part of the back is currenlty not that strongly attached and I could fix that, however once i started strpping away the horrible paintjob, I started to realised that underneath the white paint there is a coating of what looks like gold paint/foil. It seems to be mostly intact apart from some places, although when i'm removing the paint from the engraved parts i am pulling some of the gold off too.

I'm wondering at this point how old the chair might be and if anyone can identify that. and depending on that I guess I'd like to know what most likely the appearance of this chair is , and if that "gold" is actually gold so i can guess how to proceed.

For context, this chair was found in Malta, so it's a fairly safe to assume a British style of furniture history.

 

Personally, I don't think the gold was original to the chair. More likely it has had a couple of different coats of paint.
This style chair has been around for a long time and is still being made.

A picture of the underside and any joins or hardware would be helpful.

 

Hard to tell, looks like possible 3 coats of paint.
1. white, 2. gold, 3. brownish red, 4. Maybe the actual wood?

 

Oh - Welcome to the board.
Others will be along, we come and go at odd hours. So be sure to check back.

 

Regarding the dark red colour, i'm not entirely sure if it's a coat of paint or some layer of sealant/varnish that peeled off.

Attaching some pictures of the joints i can see. (the one on the leg i'm not entirely sure if it's a joint or damage yet) It could be damage as the wood feels very soft in some places. I'm finding coloured glue that seems to have been used as filler between the gold and white paint in some places (they also filled in some of the engravings for some reason)
Apart from the legs the joints seem mostly flat end and while i can't remove it completely yet it seems like it's glued on. One of the pictures shows the back of the chair, with the arch made out of 2 curved pieces with a triangular piece cut to complete the arch in between.

For something that is just glued on however, it feels absurdly sturdy and heavy, especially with some of the wood feeling somewhat soft. I don't think any of the wooden chairs built in the last 60 years that i've felt before have been this sturdy. Even with one of the joints (in pic) basically not existing i can't really pry it away with my hands as the other joint is really strong. So i imagine there is something else going on.

As for the underside someone stapled in some sack-like fabric in and i won't remove that yet cause then i need to keep my cats away from it.

The "engraving" on the wood feels very simplistic and definitely not machine made as it is uneven.

 

Oh and possibly more visible in my more recent pics but the order of the colours is in fact

light red > dark red > gold > white

so the dark red is a layer of paint/something on top of the actual wood. (not the other way round)

 

The red layer is known as Red Bole and is the common clay/glue layer foundation for gilding. Bole can be ochre (yellow bole) or even black in colour, depending on the desired effect.

 

Blooey is correct, someone used the red foundation to gold leaf the chair, then someone later painted it white.

 

Nice

So to reapply it would i need to at this point remove all existing bole ans gold before recoating ? Since i imagine coating over it would show.
And any way i can tell if it was just imitation gold leaf or not?

 

Also
Upon furter inspection he light red is indeed bole that had slightly seeped into the furniture and actual wood is under it. Which explains why its soft

 

From what i can find, i think this is a louis xvi style armchair. The question at this point would be, is it genuine or a replica

 

Managed to find the joints for the legs.
The holes seem to be larger than need be for the joint itself, and they do not seem to be symmetrical, both within themselves and with each other.
Underneath the "sack" backing there's a taught fabric, and i can definitely feel springs above it.

Am i right in saying this is very decent evidence that this might be genuinely antique?

 

No
An antique is defined by import laws as an item that is 100 or more years old.
Is your chair from the 1920s or before. I'm not so sure. It's very hard to tell with all the paint on it.

My original thought was more 1970s. I was basing that on the arm carving.
However, I might be wrong.

I was hoping one of the guys might chime in.
@verybrad @Ghopper1924

 

Thanks Cluttered. The chair's gold surface may be gilt, a very, very thin application containing gold. However, the amount of actual gold is minor; the real desire was for a gold appearance.

This type of chair has indeed been made for centuries. I'm thinking mid 20th century on this one.

 

Any idea if this style has a particular name? (something I could maybe use as a description if i were to sell this, and something that might help me stimate the value of this thing)

you mention that it a thin layer of gilt that contains gold. From my impression one can gilt in either imitation or actual gold. So in this case it was using a low karat gold leaf?
(I imagine using a similar level of "gold" quality in refurbishment would increase the value here)

 

I'm not seeing evidence of it being antique, though there is so much paint it is hard to tell. The oversize joint makes it seem newer, not older, since an old joint would be a properly fitted mortise and tenon with a pin, where the slot on yours looks to have been made oversize with a power tool. I guess you're trying to save the upholstery which is commendable, but is going to make your job much harder and makes it harder to see what is going on with the structure of the chair.

If you tear away the canvas underneath you may be able to get a better look at the springs and padding, plus unpainted wood. Canvas is not original and is easily replaced, unlike upholstery which is expensive to replace so I always do it when I get a chair I want to examine.

Also agree that whether gold paint or gold leaf, the gold leaf is so incredibly thin that it is not practical to remove it and scrap value for the tiny amount would be negligible.

Style name is one of the French King Louis's: try Louis XVI (Louis 16th).

 

there is no such thing as low karat leaf - leaf is 22k or above. Even as recently as in the 1980's the cost of a book of leaf was minimal, about $10 so to do a chair like this, a professional would only use about 2 books, maybe 3.
Most chairs made pre ww2 were almost always done in gold leaf, very rarely in the other stuff, what we call "Dutch metal" (imitation leaf or schrag).
Oh and BTW if you want to remove the red bole, you can use hot water as it is a mixture of hide or rabbit-skin glue and clay and will diisolve in hot water.

 

Removed some of the fabric at the bottom of the chair:

 

Hard to tell much under all that paint. 20th century for sure. A lot of this kind of thing was made in Italy post-WWII.

 

I have had to repair several gilded antique picture frames and large mirror frames. Usually the under bole has been a brighter red, but I have found on some of the older pieces the brownish red bole under the gilt, not gold paint. I do not see this chair as having gold paint unless whatever you are striping the white paint with is causing the gold paint to bubble and wrinkle up like gilt. i would say, stop what you are doing now and remove all of the upholstery. You are going to have to do that to get under the edges anyway without ruining the material. If you want to keep the material, do so and have it cleaned so that you can reuse it. If you get all of the material off, you might find some small piece of textile that might help identify the age of the piece. After you have done this, then decide what you want to do with the chair--keep it or sell it. If you decide that it a true antique piece and like it and want to keep it or want to sell it, then have it restored or do it properly yourself--gilt and all. A frame restoration place could probably restore the gilt for you. If you find that it is a piece that is not antique or is a reproduction of an antique, you could sell the frame without any further investment, as is, to someone who likes the style. You might even decide to keep it yourself and refinish it to you and your needs. Lets face it, you have already destroyed the original value of the piece as an antique. Wish I had that piece to work on and then keep in my home. Barbara. PS: Read what Blooey says about the bole.