Dining Chairs

I bought a massive late classical dining room table with these 8 chairs at auction for a whopping $25.

I do NOT like the chairs and am going to try to see if the local consignment shop will take them, if not I reckon I'll donate them because there is too many for my small booth and I'm not on FB anymore to use the marketplace feature.

There is a shipping tag connected to the bottom of one, the tag is listed as
Artisen Antiques
2024 Queen St Portsmouth, Va
Dial Ex. 7-7337

I looked up the address and found an empty lot.

I do not know anything chairs, so dating these are confusing for me.

They look to be a mix of a few different periods (mainly the legs), which makes me think they are probably from the 50s or 60s, but some areas make me think maybe not?

 

The chairs appear to have been repaired numerous times. The corner braces are ill cut and some are of different wood species. I believe the main wood is mahogany. My opinion on the date is 40's - 50's.

 

Agree on mahogany and on the time period. You can see that craftsmanship is going into the dumper with the onset of modernism. Still, a great deal for $25 and at least they're real wood.

 

It's odd none of the seats are secured to the frame
Oh well, think I might throw them on the next door app for $25 and get my money back and get a "free" table out of it

 

Reported spam post.

 

Actually very common, the seats are independent of the chair and simply slip into and out of the frame. They are called "slip seats" and are much easier to work on the seats without touching the frame.

 

??

Slip seats, never heard of that
They are a bit of a pain when moving around because they are always "slipping" around

 

LOL, Yeah I hear you but, you'd be happy they are slip seats if you were reupholstering them or refinishing the chair frames, trust me.
Very handy when working on either the frame or the seat.

 

Amen. Slip seats come loose, but the're way easier to reupholster than the other kind. I was looking at these chairs and wondering if they might be 30s instead of 50s. Not that it matters. They're nice solid wood and way better than anything you find in the new furniture stores these days.

 

Well, mostly true but not totally true.
You can get high-quality, handcrafted American furniture just up the street from where I am located in North Carolina, Stickley & Maiden Home come immediately to mind, naturally, it goes for premium prices so there is a downside.

Your chairs are Chippendale style with Marlboro legs & slip seats but as @Ghopper1924 noted, the quality of construction is very poor. When you look at this corner block for example..........


If that gap was any wider, the slip seat might fall thru it!
Thomas Chippendale probably rolled over in his grave when these chairs were built but, at $25. for 8 chairs & a table.................

 

Still, these modest chairs are the best of the best compared to the carboard and white tubular steel people buy from supermarkets for a multiple of the price. I wouldn't dismiss mahogany out of hand. Pirces are regional, but tighten the screws, give'em a good waxing, and ask at least the peanuts you paid for the lot for each!
Happy new year!

 

Just priced a new bed, a modest platform bed in Cherry.
Refinishing the floors here so maybe get a new bed? rather than taking the existing one down, storing and reassembly after work is completed. Just pitch the old one & be done with it? They are built just 60 miles north of where I live in High Point NC. Sounds like a plan!

Stickley Park Slope bed & frame/no mattress


List price is $8000. and change but, I can get it for the low low price of $4999. on sale at a retailer here. YIKES! 5 grand for that? Yep, it's 5 grand!
So, quality is available but they are not giving it away, trust me.

 

Wow, that's expensive!! Does the price include the mattress? If so what brand?

 

NO! no mattress, no pillows, no end tables.
Just the bed, frame & slats. 5 grand.
Stickley does NOT allow retailers to post prices online so, you have to go to the store to find out prices & such.
Good stuff, good quality but they charge you for it too.

 

And they wonder why flatpack sells! Eek.

 

Indeed.
The thing is if it's quality built in the USA it's going to be expensive, no getting round that. I was surprised at how expensive though, I was thinking 2-3k, in that range. The nightstands were going for that, about 2k each, a full bedroom suite would run you 15-20k easy.
Oh Well, on to plan B, store & reassemble the old bed & get a new mattress!

 

Mattresses alone can be crazy enough.

If I wanted to spend that kind of money I'd be looking for a local crafter in my own state. Keep it in the family as it were.

 

Well, I was kinda doing that, Stickley factory is just up the street in High Point NC. Many don't know it but, High Point NC is the furniture capital of the world, everybody who is anybody in the furniture world today is there.

 

My guess is that's where the wood is these days.

 

That's probably how it started over 100 years ago.
It's a sleepy little town in the middle of nowhere but twice a year they have a "market" thingy where furniture people assemble. Something like 150k folks from all over the nation & 100 countries of the world do business all centered on FURNITURE!
10 million? square feet of floor space where designers, buyers, sellers, etc. fuss over furniture. Many if not most of the showrooms are not open to the public.