34 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
A characteristic English 
mahogany arm chair of 
Chippendale style, 1760 
With the exception of the Flemish chair shown below, those on this 
page are English. The three upholstered with tapestry being from the 
period of Charles II 
Mahogany shield back of 
Hepplewhite lines. Com¬ 
pare with that on page 33 
introduction of a cottage chair of the Win- 
sor type would be as displeasing an anach¬ 
ronism as putting a wild thrush to neigh¬ 
bor with all the parrots of an aviary. On 
the other hand, the drawing-room of the 
average typical home in good taste the 
world over might contain a Chippendale 
chair, a Carolean settee, a Sheraton card 
table, a Louis XIII stool and an Italian 
Renaissance table, and yet be agreeably 
pleasing and pleasantly inviting if skill, 
good taste and common sense had entered 
into the character of arrangements. 
The Chance of a “Find” 
The collector who wishes to devote some 
attention to old furniture would do well to 
begin with old chairs. All the old chairs 
(the good ones and the fine ones) have not 
been “collected up” in the sense that they 
are permanently retired from busi¬ 
ness. When once they get into 
museums, of course, they stay there, 
but even museums are not omnivor¬ 
ous. Collecting supremely rare or 
unique objects is by no means the 
only pleasure to be derived from 
collecting. In fact, it is one of its 
least thrilling forms, being measured 
more by dollars and cents and the 
commerce of things than it is by the 
mere joy of acquisition. 
Some one has estimated that every 
collection which does not go into a 
museum changes hands every twenty 
years on an average. It is a fact 
that collecting in America to-day is 
infinitely more easy of accomplish¬ 
ment than it was a century ago. In 
New York City, for instance, the 
auction sales of a single recent sea¬ 
son present to the collector more op¬ 
portunities than could have come his 
way in six seasons over ten years 
ago. It is a mistake to suppose that 
all the good “chances” have passed; they 
are, as a matter of fact, just about beginning 
in America. We are told that collectors 
have ransacked farmhouses and old houses 
in the East for interesting pieces of an¬ 
tique furniture. That is true, but the proc¬ 
ess means only a change of location and 
not an elimination of possibilities. 
The collector of old chairs can easily be¬ 
come familiarized with the various forms 
and peculiarities of design which mark the 
different styles and periods as may be seen 
by even a passing glance at the accompany¬ 
ing illustrations. Indeed, the “ear-marks” 
that distinguish certain pieces of furniture 
of the historic periods and distinct styles 
from others are, happily, so numerous that 
the art of identification becomes compara¬ 
tively an easy one. Beginners will, to be 
sure, often come across modern reproduc¬ 
tions of genuine old chairs. Not all of 
these—in fact comparatively few of them— 
were made with intent to defraud. Occa¬ 
sionally some unscrupulous or ignorant per¬ 
son will offer a modern piece as genuine, 
but your true collector need hardly be de¬ 
ceived, except in rare instances, by at¬ 
tempted impositions. The form of the 
master-furniture designers of yesterday 
has never been surpassed. There is noth¬ 
ing in modern design more beautiful or so 
beautiful as so many of the old chairs of 
Chippendale, Sheraton and Hepplewhite, 
and likewise of the early English and the 
English walnut, uphol¬ 
stered in velvet from 
the time of Charles II 
(1600-1685) 
Flemish mahogany with 
leather seat and back 
and brass nails, dated 
1681 
French periods. Realizing this, the furni¬ 
ture makers of to-day at home and abroad 
have sought to reproduce the best of these 
antique pieces for the service and the bene¬ 
fit of the modern home-maker, obviously 
as undisguised reproductions. 
The collector who studies old chairs will 
glean many a helpful hint from these mod¬ 
ern reproductions. The fine ones faithful¬ 
ly carried out are really worth collecting in 
themselves as accessory to a collection of 
other pieces which the collector has been 
fortunate in obtaining in the originals. 
If vou chance to come across an old 
chair fine in the lines of its design, do not 
give it up as hopeless should you notice that 
it is disfigured with paint, dowdy, broken- 
down upholstery and the like. A good re¬ 
storer of old furniture will be able to work 
wonders with a piece of the sort. I remem¬ 
ber discovering an old chair so hidden un¬ 
der the disguise of paint, putty and car- 
plush as to have discouraged any but a 
discriminating enthusiasm. When this 
chair was turned over to a restorer he de¬ 
livered it from its bondage of humiliation 
and it came forth an excellent and treasured 
genuine example of the finest Hepplewhite 
style. The “stuffing” had completely hid¬ 
den a splendid ostrich-plume back. 
Picking Out Old Chairs 
To collect anything sensibly requires an 
interest in the available data concerning it. 
One might as well collect buttons 
manufactured in 1915 as to pay no 
attention to the study of things gath¬ 
ered together in pleasurable pursuit. 
So, too, it is with chairs. A chair 
collector looks heyond the mere utili¬ 
tarian fact that each chair can be sat 
upon with comfort, or can’t be. 
First of all he must acquaint him¬ 
self with the various periods : Italian 
Renaissance, French Renaissance, 
Flemish, Spanish, Elizabethan, Caro¬ 
lean and Jacobean (Tudor to 
Stuart), William and Mary, Queen 
Anne, the Early Georgian, the 
French periods of the Henris, the 
Louis (XIII, XIV, XV and XVI), 
the Empire, the styles of Chippen¬ 
dale, Adam, Hepplewhite, and Sher¬ 
aton, and the early American forms. 
The present article is not intended 
as a guide to the distinguishing marks 
of the various styles, but to inspire 
some interest on the part of the 
reader in the pleasurable field opened 
to him in starting a collection of interest¬ 
ing chairs. There are numerous excellent 
and inexpensive works easily available 
which may be recommended in connection 
with a study of the subject. “Decorative 
Styles and Periods,” by Helen C. Candee; 
“Chats on Old Furniture” and “Chats on 
Cottage and Farmhouse Furniture,” both 
by Arthur Hayden; “The Practical Book 
of Period Furniture,” by Eberlein and Mc¬ 
Clure ; the “Little Books About Old English 
Furniture,” by Blake and Reviers-Hopkins; 
and such other books as “First Steps in 
(Continued on page 62) 
