The wood, crafting method and design help determine the age of a chair.
Chairs have come a long way since pre-17th century Europe, when only royalty and the upper classes used elaborately-made chairsw. American homes had few chairs, except those reserved for older family members. As the chair entered widespread use, even commoners used chairs. Determining the age of chairs requires a combination of information about specific characteristics of the chair that hint at its age.
Instructions
1. Perform the feel test by running your fingers along the chair's back and underside to feel for sharp corners and edges that might indicate the chair was manufactured recently.
2. Lift the edge of an upholstered chair seat or back to check for nail holes in the chair frame. Many holes could indicate that the chair has been reupholstered many times over a long period of time.
3. Identify the type of wood used to make the chair. Different woods were commonly used during specific periods. For instance, beech has a long history as the preferred wood for chairs, oak was used to make furniture during the Middle Ages' Gothic era; and a chair made of mahogany, which was not commonly used before the 18th century to make furniture, might be a 20th century reproduction of an earlier style. Some woods were stained to resemble other types of wood, such as mahogany. Birch used to make Adirondack and Heppelwhite furniture and stained to look like mahogany and ash was common in the Queen Anne and Federal periods. Walnut, which was also called black walnut, was stained to look like mahogany and used to make furniture in the U.S. during the 1820s and 1830s.
4. Determine the woodworking method used to make the chair. The woodworking method can indicate when the chair was made, regardless of the design style. For instance, the 20th century Victorian era marked the beginning of mass-produced furniture, which is indicative by circular cuts from a circular saw. Furniture made from wood that is riven, or split along the grain, and not sawn was common during the 15th to 17th centuries. Hand sawn timber, which displays irregular teeth marks, is common to the late 16th to 17th centuries. An evenly-spaced regular angle cut is common for frame sawn timber from the 17th to 18th century.
5. Examine the pegs or screws used to construct the chair. Screws from different periods, such as pre-17th century and subsequent centuries, have distinct characteristics. Wood pegs used during the 15th to 17 century should not be perfectly round and should stand out slightly from the wood in which they are inserted.
6. Remove one screw and look for irregular spacing between the spirals of the screw and other imperfections, such as an off-center slot in the screw head.
Tags: used make, make furniture, 17th centuries, 18th century, 20th century