Windsor chairs have a way of anchoring a room. The spindle backs and splayed legs of Windsor chairs exude four hundred years of quiet authority, but Windsor chairs never seem to be stuffy in there presence. If you ever get the opportunity to sit in a Windsor chair, you will understand immediately why cabinetmakers have obsessed over Windsor chairs throughout the years.
The proportions of Windsor chairs work well together. What many people dont realize is that the term Windsor covers an entire family of chair designs. Each type of Windsor chair has a unique design that was born from the tools available to the chairmaker, the types of trees available in specific regions, and the fashion of the time period in which they were made.
Understanding the different varieties of Windsor chairs will help you to read auction rooms, restore Windsor chairs appropriate, and find the perfect chair for your own dining table. The origin story of Windsor chairs begins in the beech woods of England around the year 1700. Chairmakers noticed that turning legs and turners on a pole lathe was more faster than carving those elements of the chair by hand.
Additionally, chairmakers also noticed that bent bows could be made from green wood, meaning that the wood would not crack as it was being shaped. Based on these observations, chairmakers began to incorporate sawn spindles into the backs of the chairs to save time, as well as to design the seats in a way that they were lightweight yet sturdy enough to be transported to different parts of the countryside to sell for inexpensive prices. European immigrants brought these original Windsor chairs to America.
However, the designs began to change once these chairs were introduced into America. American artisans began to utilize the woods that was native to the American land. Additionally, the climate within each region of America prompted adjustments to the angles of the chairs by these craftsmen.
Finally, these craftsmen began to develop their own signatures within their designs of Windsor chairs. These unique characteristics remain within the best examples of Windsor chairs today if you know where to look for them. Not all varieties of Windsor chairs is designed for the same types of settings.
For example, a Windsor chair that is designed for a colonial tavern would look absurd within a moddern kitchen. At the same time, a delicate writing-arm Windsor chair may not be able to support the weight of weekend guests who may come to dine in the home. Understanding the different varieties of Windsor chairs will allow you to find the perfect match between a Windsor chair and its intended use rather than having to fight against its design.
Here’s what you need to know about the different varieties of Windsor chairs.
Popular Varieties of Windsor Chairs to Know
1. Bow-back Windsor Chairs
Bow-back Windsor chairs are the most common type of Windsor chair, and they are the most versatile type of Windsor chair. These chairs have a continuous rail of wood that forms the back of the chair and allows it to flow into the arms of the chair.
Additionally, slender spindles that extend from the back of the chair to the arms support the top rail of a bow-back Windsor chair. The saddle seat of a bow-back Windsor chair is carved from a single plank of wood. Some of the earliest examples of bow-back Windsor chairs utilized yew trees for the bows of the chair because yew wood does not splinter when bent.
Later examples of bow-back Windsor chairs used hickory and oak trees for the bows and pine trees for the saddle seat. Finally, bow-back Windsor chairs can be found in every type of design, from formal mahogany chairs to rustic milk paint chairs. These types of chairs earned a place at the head of any list of furnitures because they offer the best balance between comfort and lightness in any room in the house.
The one drawback to bow-back Windsor chairs is that the bow may relax over time due to the wood being steamed to bend it. A relaxing bow may make the spindles become loose within the arm supports of the chair. However, a good bow-back Windsor chair will last all of its owners throughout time.
2. Comb-back Windsor Chairs
Comb-back Windsor chairs get their name from the tall crest rail that features on the back of these types of Windsor chairs. These types of chairs have a tall, straight crest rail that allows the long spindles that extend from the chair back to the arms to support them. These types of chairs are ideal for dining tables because they allow individuals to sit in these chairs with their chin close to the table when they dine.
Some of the earliest examples of comb-back Windsor chairs featured a carved knuckle on the terminal ends of the chair arms to provide additional comfort to the individual who is resting their chin on the knuckle. Because the crest rail on these types of chairs is shorter than the bows of bow-back Windsor chairs, these types of chairs did not require the skill of steam-bending the bows of the chair. For this reason, comb-back Windsor chairs were popular in regions of America where steam-benders was uncommon.
The main drawback of these types of chairs is that the lack of strong lateral support that is provided by the arms may cause the spindles to rack. However, there are few other types of chairs that will provide the same feeling of comfort on a crisp autumn evening while individuals gather to dine and talk for hours.
3. Sack-back Windsor Chairs
Sack-back Windsor chairs, also known as balloon-back Windsor chairs, feature a lower profile than other types of Windsor chairs.
These types of chairs have an arm and back that are continuous with one another. Additionally, a smaller bow extends from the main bow of the chair to form a sack-like structure. These types of chairs were produced both in England and America in the early periods of the production of Windsor chairs.
Additionally, people often produced sack-back Windsor chairs in sets so that they could be used in taverns and meeting houses. The addition of the second, smaller bow to the sack-back Windsor chairs adds visual weight to the chair that allows it to stand up to the heavy wooden tables found in taverns. Philadelphia cabinetmakers produced a type of sack-back Windsor chair in the mid-eighteenth century that featured tighter curves in the arms of the chairs.
These types of sack-back Windsor chairs may look delicate that you could easily tip it over. These types of chairs are among the best options for smaller rooms in a house. However, the lower rail of the sack-back Windsor chairs may become sites for the accumulation of crumbs and dust if they are placed at the dining table every day.
4. Writing-arm Windsor Chairs
Writing-arm Windsor chairs are a type of Windsor chair that includes an extended arm that features a flat surface and an additional leg. This additional flat writing surface provided an area for literate men in the American colonies during the eighteenth century to write on the chair while they sat. Writing-arm Windsor chairs often have a small drawer beneath the writing surface of the chair.
The extended arm on the writing-arm Windsor chair may throw the chair out of balance, but the additional leg of the chair and the splayed leg of the arm provide enough counterbalance to the chair so that it will not topple over when the individual intends to write on the writing surface of the chair. These types of Windsor chairs are rare and command high prices within the furniture world. However, if you spend your days from home, there is no better feeling than using a writing-arm Windsor chair to write emails.
However, you should know that the writing surface on a writing-arm Windsor chair may not be large enough to comfortabley place a laptop on its surface as most of them were designed for supporting the weight of quill pens.
5. Fan-back Windsor Chairs
Fan-back Windsor chairs are a distinctly American design that was created around the year 1760. The spindles on these chairs flare dramatically from the back of the chair to the crest rail of the chair.
Additionally, the arms on fan-back Windsor chairs are lower and more delicate than the arms on bow-back Windsor chairs. Fan-back Windsor chairs are among the favorite types of Windsor chairs of the artisans of Newport and Salem in America. These types of chairs often feature scrollwork on the crest of the chair.
These types of Windsor chairs feel formal yet they are not stiff. For these reasons, fan-back Windsor chairs appear frequently in historical portraits of early American merchants. The main drawback of fan-back Windsor chairs is that the flares of the spindles make the seat of the chair to appear narrower than it is.
For this reason, taller individuals may prefer the width of a bow-back Windsor chair.
6. Continuous-arm Windsor Chairs
Continuous-arm Windsor chairs were designed to solve the problem of loose joints between the arms of the chair and its back. The arm and the top bow of a continuous-arm Windsor chair are created from steam-bending one long piece of wood from side to side of the chair.
Additionally, the spindles pierce the single long rail of the chair. The types of wood used for continuous-arm Windsor chairs require a long piece of ash or oak wood that features straight grains in the wood. Additionally, the cabinetmaker must steam-bend the long piece of wood required for the continuous-arm Windsor chair so that it can be incorporated into the finished furniture.
Therefore, continuous-arm Windsor chairs have always been expensive. However, when a cabinetmaker completes a continuous-arm Windsor chair to their satisfaction, the arm of the chair features no glue lines or pegs on any part of the perimeter of the chair. This type of Windsor chair has a modern appeal even though it dates to the 1790s. The major drawback of the design of the continuous-arm Windsor chair is that if the wood bend of the arm fails, the entire arm of the chair will be compromised.
Thus, the repairs to an arm of a continuous-arm Windsor chair will be as dramatic as the failure of that joint.
7. Low-back Windsor Chairs
Low-back Windsor chairs, also known as firehouse Windsor chairs, were designed for tight spaces in urban areas and for public buildings such as firehouses. The backs of low-back Windsor chairs only rise a few inches above the arms of the chair.
These chairs were sacrificed in
