Featured Old ladder back armchair, repair help, age?

(The color is so well done it will probably just continue life as is. )

 

Well, thing is, if a base to highboy they had to put a new top on when they split the piece in 2, chest of drawers as 1 piece & server for another. The problem with my top was, it was pine & not walnut the way rest of piece was so looked odd. Bottom line is all highboy bases have replaced tops, otherwise there is a big hole there!

 

The main reason highboys got split in 2 pieces, family was on hard times & needed furniture, highboys make a nice candidate for that. Take the top part of highboy, put on bracket feet and you have a chest of drawers, with the bottom part, put on a top and you have a server.

 

SIS, that is a lovely chair with beautiful turnings and so well proportioned. You will need to do it right to preserve the integrity of the piece. The value of these fine old pieces will come back when folks get tired of all their painted stuff. I would give it a home any day.
Patd

 

Agrees! the form & turnings are very well done plus, it's early as well. One of the better examples I've seen on this forum, for sure.

 

Well I do love this chair and I will try to find a good restorer. I'm not sure I have great optimism about the return of old brown wood furniture popularity anytime soon though.

 

That's not the point! The point is to have interesting things to live with. This notion that one must make money or at least break even on old furniture is all wrong in my view.

 

Surprisingly the money isn't really an issue it's the volume of stuff I have that someday will need to move on.

 

LOL, UH OHHH, sounds like someone might have a hoarding problem

 

I've always thought there is a very fine line between collecting and hoarding. (I can see my floors so I think I'm OK.)

 

Hi,
If you can see your floors you are a collector. If you can not see your floors you are a hoarder. I have preached this for a long long time.
greg

 

What if you can only see the floors in part of your house?

 

Hi,
Still a collector. Hoarder is some one who has NO open floor space anywhere.
greg

 

A hoarder that has it partially under control

 

I just realized something about you HB base after getting Nadeau's auction catalog this morning, it's not the top that's different, they are always replaced, it's the long drawer above the 3 short drawers that is missing? HB base should be 36" high with that long drawer.
HB base 32" high X 40 " wide @ Nadeau's sale

 

Hmmm, maybe not though, here is a HB that is complete at same sale

 

and another same sale WITH the long drawer, now i am confused

 

I went and measured, 40" wide, 20 1/2" deep, 33" high. Still has the receipt from when we bought it at one of those higher end antique outdoor sales calling it an 18 th C. highboy base with later top. As I recall they thought it was from New England but it's been awhile.

 

Yeah, a replaced top is almost required for a HB base. Mine is 37 wide X 36 tall . That's the trouble with 18th century American cabinetmakers, they did not follow any rules! the way they did in England. Course, not following the rules also produced some spectacular masterpieces! So i guess it all works out.

 

My HB base, walnut, NY or RI about 1760- original pulls, purchased from a retired dealer in NH, and NO, i would never get what i put into it money wise but i don't care