Thread: Hepplewhite chairs

Originally Posted by mark david

Lovely bit of craftsmanship in that chair, looks more Sheraton than Hepplewhite but could be wrong.

I agree you could be wrong , and so could I.


What part of That chair back looks more Sheraton than Hepplewhite Mark ?

Edit , The only thing I can see that may make it a little later may be the style of carving ?

In General terms Sheraton was more about straight lines and Hepplewite more about curves .

Look here

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=h...2&ved=0CBwQsAQ

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=sheraton+chair&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=TLuzVIS3O4v48QX-oICwBw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1344&bih=683

Sheraton designed shield back chairs too as did most of othe other major designers/makers of the period.
I would certainly say Sheraton was not about straight lines not by any means.
Without a direct comparison to a design in any of the furniture directors it is more or less impossible to definitively attribute anything to a particular maker

It I also interesting that there are no examples of furniture directly attributable to Hepplewhite and even less evidence that Sheraton ever made furniture atall.
The acanthus and flower carving.

Originally Posted by auscab

I agree you could be wrong , and so could I.


What part of That chair back looks more Sheraton than Hepplewhite Mark ?

Edit , The only thing I can see that may make it a little later may be the style of carving ?

In General terms Sheraton was more about straight lines and Hepplewite more about curves .

Look here

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=h...2&ved=0CBwQsAQ

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=sheraton+chair&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=TLuzVIS3O4v48QX-oICwBw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1344&bih=683

Your sounding a bit defensive Mark ??

Originally Posted by mark david

Sheraton designed shield back chairs too as did most of othe other major designers/makers of the period.

Hepplewhite was known for his shield back designs, and Sheraton was not as much.

Originally Posted by mark david

I would certainly say Sheraton was not about straight lines not by any means.

I would . That's one of the ways I like to generally describe Sheraton sometimes, when comparing it to a lot of other styles I like to keep it simple , the KISS approach .
On every piece of furniture that exists you can pick two points and the line in between can be from dead straight to curves all over the place.
Sheraton chose more plain and straight than Heppelwhite . Certainly in his chairs it is easy to see.

Originally Posted by mark david

Without a direct comparison to a design in any of the furniture directors it is more or less impossible to definitively attribute anything to a particular maker

Well I didn't say the Chair I put in was definitively any thing , its just a very nice very close example Mark.

You said
"Lovely bit of craftsmanship in that chair, looks more Sheraton than Hepplewhite but could be wrong."

I'm still wondering what about it could be more Sheraton than Hepplewhite ? I was hoping you could point out some subtle difference , your last post didn't answer that Mark,

Originally Posted by mark david

It I also interesting that there are no examples of furniture directly attributable to Hepplewhite and even less evidence that Sheraton ever made furniture atall.

Slackers Mark, the both of them , probably both Dandys who copied Chippendale's success by writing a book ??

Originally Posted by mark david

The acanthus and flower carving.

I'm not going fishing tomorrow but going to work Why ?

Rob

No I am not being defensive, why should I be
I did live in England and collect, deal and restore antiques for 20 years so I learnt a few things and am familiar with most of the furniture director's but not to any of the books you say they wrote.

Maybe it is by Mayhew and Ince but who cares.

Trav,
Most of the original chairs you would see from this period are going to be Mahogany . If you wanted to build in Mahogany, I think the only option for that is either a find of someone who has stashed Honduran away years ago , a few large stashes have tuned up over the last few years , and been sold off .

Mathews timber sell a good type of plantation mahogany ,Fiji Mahogany, I think they call it, or they may call it Swietenia Mahoany . I forget ? . It has nice close grain that matches perfectly sometimes with the Mahogany of the 18th and 19 century , Ive built a few things with it .
Mainly traditional cabinets , some chair legs as well for a 18th century wing chair , they are a sturdy leg though.

The main drawback with it is that it is light weight stuff mostly , to light for fine chars ,although having arms will help . Its worth looking through their boards though, because a smaller percentage of a pack will usually always have some nice dense darker boards in it . you can spot them just by the colour and then give them a good knock with your knuckles and you will hear and feel the difference.

If none of the good stuff was available, Blackwood may be a good option ? The colour is almost right and same with the density, it's like Mahogany in that you will find light weight and heavy darker stuff . and their will be plenty to look through .

Rob

Originally Posted by mark david

No I am not being defensive, why should I be
I did live in England and collect, deal and restore antiques for 20 years so I learnt a few things and am familiar with most of the furniture .

.

That's good then Mark , we have a lot in common when it comes to furniture .

Rob

Rob, Mark, thank you both for your posts.

Its been a good exercise for me to learn a bit more about the style and materials used.

I think my first step from here is going to be to get some experience in simpler forms of chair that ideally use the same joinery.

Rather than go directly to something more modern - I'm wondering whether something more square with less ornate carving (such as in the link below) - might be a less technical project to tackle.

http://www.schwenke.com/proddetail.asp?prod=9658&cat=11

Most of the joinery will be similar based on my limited knowledge - some obvious differences with the back though.

I'll look into the wood suggestions made too Rob, many thanks for that.

Might be a little while before I start this one, but I'll be sure to post up my progress as I do.

Cheers,

Trav