We made a set of eight side chairs,(ten total) reproduced from our clients original chair attributed to William Savery of Philadelphia, PA  circa 1750’.   The original 18th century chair has details most prominently seen on Savery’s work, the bulbous round turned front stretcher, the crook’t  feet and legs which are a slightly different take on the cabriole leg,  the solid shaped back splat and crest rail  and the rush seat with sculpted aprons. These chairs, like the original are made from solid, lightly figured maple.  All shaping of these chairs is done by hand  with a variety of hand tools to achieve the same look  and feel as the originals.  The seat is a traditional, hand twisted, hand weaved, natural cat tail rush.

    As the process of making these chairs went on, my appreciation for this design grew, the blend of Chippendale and Queen Anne combined in this chair really work well.  At first glance, the chair has a clean almost simple look compared to that of the more elaborately carved examples of the period, but, the more you look you start to notice the shapes and chamfers of the posts, crest rail and splat and how they all flow together, the more you understand and appreciate what goes into a design like this.

Contact us for more information on the custom and reproduction furniture we make to order.

Watch our video on the making of these chairs