Dear Helaine and Joe: I found this Windsor chair at a flea market for $125. It is mahogany, 40 inches tall and has "Priscilla Flat C2294C" stenciled on the underside of the seat. How old is this chair, and is it a particular Windsor style? -- J. M. Forsyth, Georgia.
Dear J.M.: Legend says that England's King George I (1660-1727) was on a fox hunt when it began to rain and he sought shelter in the home of one of his subjects, where he sat on a simple chair. The story goes that he was so pleased with the seat that he commissioned several of his own.This is probably just romantic fantasy because when George I took the throne in 1714, the Windsor style was already associated with Windsor Castle, where it was used as garden seating.
Eventually, turners (craftsmen who made furniture by turning wood on a lathe) got involved and started making chairs with turned members, and the Windsor chair as we know it evolved.
Windsors have slender, turned spindles and splayed, raked or outwardly thrusting legs with an H-shaped stretcher commonly joining the stick legs.
This chair flourished in early 18th century England, both as garden, and to a much lesser extent, as interior seating.
American Windsors were composed of a variety of woods, and this hodgepodge was normally disguised with painted surfaces.
Seats on Windsor chairs were constructed from one piece of wood, not two glued together, with the best American chairs having thicker, well-developed saddle seats and legs set in at a raked angle.
The stenciling on the bottom, the wood it is made from and the lack of any signs of age show this chair to be an early 20th century product and worth the $125 paid for it.
Helaine Fendelman is feature editor at Country Living magazine and Joe Rosson writes about antiques at The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee. Questions can by mailed to them at P.O. Box 12208, Knoxville, TN 37912-0208.