Featured Please Help Me Identify a chair...

Hi,

My Mom recently passed and I'm trying to identify quite a few items she had in her house..

I love this chair and was hoping someone here might have a clue as to what it was..

Im pretty sure the upholstery is not original..chair is in excellent condition and I've tried to be descriptive in the photos..searched for markings and only found a 'V' stamped in the wood..Aside from of course, from the stylized BG inlay on the back..
For sure interested in rough value thoughts..much of this i will keep because it's been
a huge part of my our lives..some will be sold for sure..

Maybe one of you will have some info?

Thanks so much..

 

sorry for your loss......

 

The chair is nice, but I love that floor!

 

That V indicates it was number five of a set, either six or eight chairs. It looks Edwardian.

 

Federal neoclassical style, I don't think period. Guesses the V mark is to ID the chair in a set of dining chairs. Single chairs are a tough sell in today's market, the monogram hurts the value as well.

 

Looks like an old factory floor- refinished....NICE!!!

 

Agreed.Very cool..

 

Well, I'd say when there are more posts on the floor than the chair sitting on the floor, it's not a good sign for the chair. just sayin......

 

THAT brought quite a chuckle James!

 

And, I'm still laughing!!

 

As always, happy to entertain you!

 

Why thank you Sir!

Much appeciated!!!!

 

Ha!! I get this all the time..the floor has become known on my local Craigs where i sell and trade a lot of musical and camera equipment..
I get emails.."i knew who was selling this when i saw the floor.."

Had a woman, total stranger, respond to a Craig ad for a commercial stainless steel sink...She came over and bought it but when she came in she said, "half the reason i responded and made an appointment so quickly was to find out what you did with this floor!"

It IS an old factory floor in an 1890 sweatshop building
..but when i moved into this building, this space's floor it was covered with two layers of old composite (asbestos) tile..the underlayment was a very heavy tar
paper..the Boiler for this building--the size of a small locomotive, happened to be under this 1890 maple floor..slowly over the years the warmth from the boiler caused the floor to absorb the tar aspect..

Wasn't sure what to do when i got everything up,..so i just rented a sander and a ton of paper and had at it..lot of work, but it worked

the Finish puzzled me..was in the early days of water borne floor finish and catalyzed/activator floor products..I went with an old oil product for a generous sealer coat and then a Cat product...worked..this is tweny plus years later..it's my workshop/studio floor.

OK!!

thanks for all your info on the actual chair..very interesting stuff..the 'V' stuff was cool to know..The chair is in great shape structurally..has a look i enjoy, too.

I'll get on the web later and do some reading based on the info provided here...
any other thoughts on it welcome...the chair..not the floor!! : )

 

Question:
What are the signs of the chair here not being 'period'?
method of construction clues?

 

Yes.
Period means built in the period, in your chairs case, 1790-1820 or so.
Your chair is very likely machine- factory-built, not hand-made as it would have been if built-in period.
The plugs on the back of your chair are likely to cover steel wood screws, not the way things were done in 1790.
Guesses your chair is 1st quarter 20th century so could still be antique, just not a period example. Value-wise it doesn't matter much if American or English, very little value for a single dining chair either way.

 

James..excellent, thanks so much.

 

No problem, I wish I had better news but generally speaking antique furniture today is in a severe depression and has been for many years.
There are exceptions of course to this lousy market but unfortunately, your chair isn't one of them.

 

But take heart you still have that floor..!

 

Yes, thanks..very much aware of the down market...in Antiques rugs too..

We considered auctioning a lot of this stuff but after some research realized that
we should just keep most of the stuff..distribute around the family and enjoy it..
My Mom was a fairly heavy duty Antique Oriental rug dealer in her day..we all are fairly zoned in on things and know who to talk to about general issues.
I figured It's be better tho, to open an account here and drop items over time for identification and rough value discussions..a few close friends of the family,My Mom's associates, who are very knowledgable and still in the biz..we didn't want to overwhelm them..they've already done a ton in helping us..