This chair, called
Victorian ladies or nursing chair, was quite a find, as it was a restorer's dream. The many coats of paint had in fact camouflaged the beauty that lay unseen beneath. The original white ceramic casters were intact although again covered in paint.
After many hours of hand stripping using a strong paint remover and cleaning off the residue with very fine steel wool, revealed was a solid walnut frame which when cleaned and nourished showed all it's natural colour again. The original coverings were removed including webbing, springs and stuffing. After re-gluing the loose joints and dipping the brass castor fittings in a brass cleaner to bring them back to new again.
I was then ready to re-upholster, fitting 8 new 6inch springs strung together making a firm base for the coir and animal hair stuffing and finished in the original way. The back was deep buttoned to complete. The chair dates around 1870 to 1880. The following photos show the chair prior to restoration, and its fully restored splendour.
The following pair of Edwardian occasional chairs needed repairing and re-upholstering, as the seating had become misshapen. They are a very pretty pair with open splat backs that have been inlaid with different coloured woods in the form of a flower. These types of chairs are always popular in auctions and sell well.
They came to me without their castors, which I replaced with reproduction brass and ceramic ones, in keeping with the originals that would have been in place.
A useful point to look for when buying antique chairs is to turn them over and look at the seat rails, which are usually made in beech and are tenoned into the legs of the chair. Until c1840-50 corner braces were added for extra strength. These fitted into slots in the top of the seat rails and were simply glued. After c1840-50 corner brackets were used, These were glued and screwed into the angle of the rails.
