AboutFred Taylor Expertise I will attempt to answer questions about American antique furniture, including construction details, style, period, manufacturers, care, repair and storage. I do not have any background in appliances, musical instruments, sewing machines, lighting and clocks and will not respond to quesions about those items.
Experience I ran an antique furniture restoration business for twenty years. I am a nationally syndicated columnist on the subject of antique furniture for such publications as Antique Week and New England Antiques Journal. I have produced one video on the subject of furniture identification and my book "HOW TO BE A FURNITURE DETECTIVE" is now available.I have also published articles in Antique Trader, Chicago Art Deco Society, Northeast Magazine, Victorian Decorating and Lifestyles, Professional Refinishing, Antiques and Art Around Florida and Antique Shoppe. You can visit my website at www.furnituredetective.com
Education/Credentials BSBA Finance, University of Florida, MBA Finance, University of Florida
This chair has been in my family for quite some years. We don't know anything about it other thatn we heard it it has original velvet ulpolstry and that it was filled with horsehair. Anything you can provide would be sincerely appreicated.
Answer Lindan - The chair is a 1950s era club chair made of maple. It is highly unlikely that the stuffing is horsehair from that period. That went out in the 1930s. The upholstery with the faint stripe effect is called "stria" velvet. Stria velvet was most popular in the 1970s and 1980s.
It' easy enough to see how the chair is stuffed by turning it upside down and opening a corner of the cambric (the lowest dust cover). That way you will be able to see the springs and perhaps some of the stuffing. Zig zag springs, as opposed to coil springs, are a guarantee of recent vintage.
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