Windsor chair Totally Explained

Everything about Windsor Chair totally explained

A Windsor chair is a chair built with a wooden seat into which are fixed the backrest and undercarriage. Typically, the backrest and sometimes the arm pieces are formed from steam bent pieces of wood.

History

Windsor chairs were developed in the late 17th century in the vicinity of High Wycombe but named for the local big town of Windsor, Berkshire, England. Their introduction to America seems to have been by the 1726 governor of Pennsylvania, Patrick Gordon.

Forms and construction

There are about seven distinctive forms. These include:

Sackback
Hoopback
Combback
Continuous arm
Low back
Rod back

Fan back

It is common to find Windsors made in the 1700's that contain three different species of wood. Pine or poplar are common for the seat. Maple makes crisp turnings. Oak, ash, and elm all rive (split) and steam bend nicely. They are also straight grained and thus work well for slender spindles.
   The wood of the seat is removed to create the saddle. Softer wood makes the shaping of the saddle easier.
   The legs are splayed at angles fore-and-aft (rake) as well as side-to-side (splay) to provide actual and visual support of the person sitting. Early chairs made in America usually have stretchers connecting the front and back legs and a cross stretcher connecting the two side stretchers, creating what is known as an "H" stretcher assembly.
   "Through holed and wedged" is one of the primary means of joining Windsor chair parts. A cylindrical or tapered hole is bored in the first piece, the matching cylindrical or tapered end of the second piece is inserted in the hole, and a wedge is driven into the end of the second piece, flaring it tight in the hole. The excess portion of the wedge is then cut and sanded until it's smooth and flush with the surrounding surface. This supplies a mechanical hold that will prevail when the glue fails. In general, early Windsor chair joints are held together mechanically, making glue a redundant detail in their assembly.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Windsor Chair'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://windsor_chair.totallyexplained.com">Windsor chair Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.