Chair Information

[DennyH]

My mother-in-law bought 6 matching chairs from an antique dealer near Cleveland, Ohio, around 1980 and kept them for many years. She said that they were "Plains" chairs, but I cannot find anything by that description. These passed to us after her death and we have had them for quite a while. They are very small and somewhat light, but are in nice shape. They do not appear to be pegged -- nail heads are visible at some joints. I cannot tell if the nails were original to the construction or if they were added later to tighten them up. They have nice lines & refinements, but I cannot find anything similar for comparison or reference.

 

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[BosnMate]

We had a couple of chairs like that when I was a kid, and I'm sure they were old at the time. Probably from the family homestead.

 

[nhbenz]

I see many simply tagged as "early American, rush seat" chairs (I believe these would have had rush seats originally).

 

[unclemac]

i have one too...the seat is original rope just like yours. these were made by amateurs, anyone actually, mostly farmers and such i am thinking. the nails would have come later, i suspect. if you look at each chair i am sure you will see that each piece, although very similar, has slight variations in thickness, height, etc. each chair was hand made out of necessity. mine in fact, is a family piece that came across the country by covered wagon in the 1850's