Reupholstery 101 Part III

On March 22^nd, we talked about the twisting action of the nails grinding against the wood as it moves in and out of the frame. I will document the damage after the jute webbing is removed. Today another problem is discussed; tightening the stretched out webbing in lieu of replacing it.

Notice the light colored strip of fabric that is visible on top of the webbing running diagonally to the metal strap we discussed last week.  This was the first attempt to shore up the webbing via a quick fix. 

Photo: SHS

Over time all webbing stretches out. This fix takes the slack in the length of webbing and literally nails it to the frame.

Keeping in mind that the chair is upside down, the process is as follows. First the strip of strong fabric, in this case vinyl was placed on top of the webbing. Then the technician placed pressure on it and forced it down.  With even more pressure it was forced sideways against the inside of the chair rail; at which point tacks were driven through the strip and the webbing at an angle into the chair seat rail.  

 The slack in the length of webbing is nailed to the frame, making the webbing tighter and forcing the springs back up to their original height.

Photo: SHS

This process is detrimental to the chair for two reasons. The chair frame is receiving more nails than it was engineered for. Plus It was manufactured with the idea that only upholstery tacks would enter the frame from the top and the bottom of the rail.

The fabric method puts nails at an angle through the rail. In the prototype process, the grain of the wood is taken into consideration as the cabinetmaker considers how the chair is joined and weight will be distributed. Nails entering the seat rail at an angle were not taken into consideration and will at first cause bits to fracture off and eventually larger portions of the wood to split.

The metal strap method mentioned on March 22nd also causes damage to the wood frame.

Photo: SHS

The twist nails(1") used to attach the strap to the frame are longer than upholstery tacks (3/4") and consequently forced deeper into the wood. Upholstery tacks are tapered. They separate the fibers as they enter the wood. But the twist nail shafts are thicker than upholstery tacks and the shaft is twisted: as it enters the wood it crushes the fibers. 

These ill considered repairs were not anticipated by the woodworker.* 

Pictured below (left to right) are a twist nail, a size 14 upholstery tack and a size 8 upholstery tack.  Note how the shafts of the upholstery tacks are tapered and that of the twist nail is only tapered at the very tip.

Photo: SHS

You might be wondering why two attempts were made to shore up the webbing?!?  

Replacing the webbing on the bottom of a chair hinges to another time consuming job; that of removing, reinstalling and retying the springs.  It is a time intensive process which requires a certain level of skill.

Illustration by the Author

Only the craftiest upholsterer can retie the springs to new webbing through the webbed bottom. 

Photo: SHS

So to save time and/or avoid work many upholsterers technicians ignore the obvious and strap on whatever quick fix they can thereby compromising the frame of the chair.

The integrity of the blog chair frame has been weakened.

As the nail continues to turn....

Theresa

Yummy Furniture and Design

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*For more on the wood's qualities and how people crafted in the medium, see John T. Kirk's, American Furniture, Understanding Styles, Construction and Quality, New York, Harry N. Abrams. Section 2, pp 17-25.

Change of Pace: Discussion on Postwar Suburbs in America

Have you ever really thought about where you live and how it came to be? 

At a panel discussion (3.28.2011) entitled “History and Fate of the Postwar American Suburb” at the UW-Madison, WI, I got a new perspective on how a sense of place-and history -is so important to our perception of home.

Presenting the panel:

L-R, Arnold R. Alanen, Brad Murphy. Dianne Harris, Daina Penkiunas, Brad Murphy, Anna Andrzejewski

Moderator Anna Andrzejewski opened the discourse by posing several questions:

Anna Vemer Andrzejewski

As postwar suburbs become historical sites, both preservationists and city planners alike are asking:

What do we preserve?

How can we accommodate commercial development within these areas? 

How do we study these places and finally…

How do we live in them? 

Arnold R. Alanen provided the background.  

Arnold R. Alanen

Citing the popular movie Revolutionary Road in which Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio play a young couple struggling with the everyday monotony of suburban life, the movie’s inspiration was John Keats 1957 novel, The Crack in the Picture Window.  Per Alanen, “the ethos of over conformity at any price” was sweeping the country at this time.

While conformity was the name of the game, a great deal of anti-suburban sentiment existed.  Yet suburbs provided things that every American sought; an affordable home in a safe family centered neighborhood. The Levittowns of Long Island, New Jersey and Bucks County naturally played into the discussion.    

Early in the forum it occurred to me that race would become part of our dialogue. And it did as our central guest speaker Dianne Harris brought to the fore that these ordinary post war houses represented our race, class and identity. 

Dianne Harris

In fact the first studies of the Bucks County based Levittown were about the race riot that occurred as Daisy and Bill Meyers, the first African Americans residents moved in on August 20, 1957. The couple remained for five years but moved when Bill’s job was transferred to another area.

Levittown, PA - courtesy Wikipedia

Andrzejewski mentioned how her own experience of living in a suburb clashed with her preconceived notion. The private neighborhood chosen by her family allowed  little privacy as the prized suburban feature the picture window afforded her neighbors an unlimited view into their everyday life.

To wrap things up the question of “Where are we at this moment?” was posed. It was  mentioned that changes in individual perception of place, culture and history cannot be mandated.  However, it was more or less agreed that the past model has already been broken and the nuclear family changed with it. Just as additions to houses change the appearance from the original plans, contemporary families are made of different societal expectations which will help foster a more vibrant and diverse suburban life. 

 ...this panel helped all of us think about where we live, and why we live there:
 
--Dianne Harris, Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, Architecture, Art History, and History; Director, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
--Arnold R. Alanen, Professor Emeritus, Department of Landscape Architecture
--Anna Vemer Andrzejewski, Associate Professor, Department of Art History and Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures Program
--Kurt Paulsen, Assistant Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning
--Brad Murphy, Director, Planning Division, City of Madison
--Daina Penkiunas, National Register Coordinator, Division of Historic Preservation, Wisconsin Historical Society
 --Thanks also to Preeti Chopra for arranging  Dianne Harris' visit.


Hope you are sitting pretty wherever you live!

Theresa

Yummy Furniture and Design

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ReUpholstery 101 Part II

As mentioned earlier today I am posting some photos of the rip-down process.

The rip-down is the first step of the re-upholstery process; during which the spent materials such as webbing, fabric, tacks, twine, etc. are removed. This enables us to get a good look at the frame and see if it needs repair.  I always flip my pieces upside down and take a look at the bottom.

Photo: SHS

Then I place the chair upside down on a set of padded work horses. 

The first items to be removed here are the metal webbing strips because they were installed over the jute webbing in lieu of replacing it when it became weak and sagged. This method of shoring up the jute webbing should be avoided at all costs. It employs a twist nail driven through the holes in the strap and into the frame.  They do a great job of holding the strap in place at a dear cost to the chair: when they are both installed and removed the twisting motion weakens the chair's frame.  

 Notice the twist of the metal on the of the nail protruding from the metal strap webbing I've removed.

Photo: SHS

Look at the head of the nail in the metal strap and notice the faint black line I drew across it. The line is vertical in this shot.

Photo: SHS

Now look at the same nail and again and notice the faint black line is at a different angle.  This corkscrew effect occurred as I pried the nail from the frame by means of a tack puller. If this were a standard tack or nail the line would have stayed in the same vertical direction it was in the previous photo

.

Photo: SHS

The twisting action grinds against the wood of the frame as it moves. We will be able to see the damage once the jute webbing is removed.


As the nail turns....

Theresa

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Reupholstery 101

During the next days of this blog I will document the entire process of tearing down and re-upholstering this 19th century Chippendale style ribbon back armchair. 

Photo: SHS

What will be done?

The following items will be removed:

-The fabric seat covering and tacks that attach the fabric to frame.

-The fill (cotton, hair or other?) under the fabric. We will discover if it was it tied to the burlap spring cover. 

-The burlap cover of the springs and the tacks that attach it to the frame. Is the   cover burlap, the typical fabric for this job in the 19^th century?

-The spring tying twine and the tacks attaching the twine to the frame.

            -We will also examine the type of knot(s) used.

-The springs; we will measure them in the compressed state and released.

-What type of twine was used to attach the springs to webbing? (looks original) 

-The webbing in order of removal:

                    -Metal (not original)

                    -Nails that hold the metal webbing (not original)

                    -Vinyl "spacers" that shore up the jute webbing (not original)

                    -Tacks that hold them (not original)

                    -Jute webbing, measure

                    -Tacks that hold the jute webbing in place

Photo: SHS

   

*At all times I will look for original fabric fragments under any original tacks found.*

If you've ever wanted to learn how to reupholster a chair, this is your opportunity! Taking notes of the process of tearing down chairs and reversing them is how I learned to upholster.  

In these segments I will document both processes! After completely ripping down and documenting every tack, spring and fabric; I will completely re-upholster the chair from the webbing up!

This is the most time intensive part of this blog so bear with me. New posts will appear on Mondays and Tuesdays. If you have questions as we go, don’t be shy, my email address is at the end of every blog!

I should have some photos of the rip-down process posted later this evening.

Theresa

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Where do you find yours?

A favorite topic among antique dealers, interior designers and collectors is often the story of the "the find". The who, what, when, where and why of acquiring an object can be evocative tale. If you are anything like me, getting up at 4 AM to arrive at a flea market before dawn is the beginning. If it ends happily, your car or van will be stuffed to the gills and everyone who came along will leave with something held tightly in their lap along with another object tucked in between their legs on the floor. 

Today I stopped by Linkedin to join the conversation started by Jason Fox on "Where do you get your antiques?"  I mentioned my favorite haunt was a place called the Perkiomeville Flea Market in Pennsylvania. Though I haven't been there in years, when I lived in PA it was a regular stop.

Now that I live in Wisconsin, I shop locally here as well; unless I am looking for something very specific. That's how I came upon my current subject of the blog chair. This Victorian era reproduction of an 18th century Chippendale ribbon back chair was discovered via a quick peek at my local antiques mall 5 Star Antiques in Fort Atkinson WI. 

Photo: SHS

I am never able to follow through on that "quick peek" promise to myself so it always turns into a long stop and look into every corner. Happily, my main interest is in furniture so I don't look in every smalls case. 

BUT, the trick to collecting is this; go armed with the knowledge of what you are looking at! 

As an ongoing student of antiques and material culture the book on my nightstand is almost invariably a text. A few of my favorites are Sotheby's Concise Encyclopedia of Furniture, American Furniture 1620 to the Present and Upholstery in America and Europe. With titles that include words like Encyclopedia one might think this is pretty heady stuff to read before you go to bed. But it is what I love, so it is neither heady or difficult to read. 

This is a detail shot of an empire period foot from my personal collection, and I love it!

Photo: SHS

Here is what I recommend to the novice. Establish a time-line in your head!  And start with something you love. 

Let's just say you are infatuated with round piano stools that sport glass ball feet. Research the form at your library and discover who made it, what materials they used, when and where it was made and think about why you collect it. (You can do this online if you use documented sources.)

You will discover these piano stools were all the rage in Victorian America, so many manufacturers (who) made them. What they were primarily made of would be a wood abundant to the manufacturer; at this time, mahogany, walnut, maple and other woods where readily available.  When has already been answered; and where is in all major manufacturing sites during this time. Pianos and their accessories were extremely popular items. It was a way of life for the family to spend time in the parlor every evening entertaining each other. Those who could afford them owned a piano. Why you collect them is a personal question for you to answer.

As you memorize this information, you will no doubt survey a broader field of information about furniture in the Victorian era. Now you have a starting reference point from which to build you antiques vocabulary. Where you go from here, depends on you. Move on to a period before or after your muse, staying focused on your field of piano accessories. It also helps if you stay on one continent as well.

Make notes of what you find and keep them close at hand. Draw details if necessary. 

Illustration by the author, Photo: SHS

Review them as often as you like. It's your hobby so move at your own pace. I studied this way for years. But it all came together when I took a university course in the history of American design. We moved through each period with painstaking accuracy. The knowledge from the course combined with what I already taught myself made it all click.

Of course you can choose to go on taking the advice of less knowledgeable friends and antique store owners. But don't whine if you spend too much money on a pretty object only to find it is an impostor! 


Collecting antiques is a way for many of us to interact with the decorative arts. It's a worthwhile endeavor that brings beauty and meaning into our lives. 

I received this vintage chair as compensation for an upholstery job. I have not researched its period yet, but it's value is not important to me. I love it!

Photo by the author

There is a reading list at the end of this post. If you are interested in a survey of all western and American periods of furniture, I highly recommend the first selection: Sotheby's Concise Encyclopedia of Furniture.

Happy collecting AND studying!

Theresa

Yummy Furniture and Design

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Recommended Texts:
Payne, Christopher. Sotheby's Concise Encyclopedia of Furniture, New York, Harper & Row.

Fairbanks, Jonathan and Bidwell Bates, Elizabeth, American Furniture 1620 to the Present, New York, Richard Marek.
Cooke, Edward S. Jr., Upholstery in America and Europe from the 17^th C to WWI., New York, W.W. Norton & Co. 90.

Rococo AND Colonial Revival?

 

As mentioned in the previous blog, Charles F. Hummel of Winterthur wrote me to say that since the blog chair used plied wood in its back it was definitely Rococo Revival. Today I propose that while the blog chair is in that category, it holds a dual identity. Since it is an obvious remake of an 18th century Chippendale style ribbom back chair, it falls into the additional category of Colonial Revival.

19th C Ribbon Back Chair. Photo by SHS

18th C chair in Plate XV in TG&CMD

          It is generally thought that the colonial revival period began around the time of America’s centennial.  Interest in period furnishings was spurned by the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876. During this time all periods of American colonial furniture; Mannerist, William and Mary, Queen Anne, Georgian, Chippendale, Federal, Neoclassical and Empire were simply lumped together into one category called colonial.(13)

Furniture adaptations on decorative and structural elements were called improvements.(14) For instance, on the blog chair there are three improvements that spring to mind.

1.The use of the three layer plied wood back to allow the chair’s back to curve and fit the contour of the human body. 

Photo: SHS

 

2. Springs in the seat, to make it “give” under weight and be more comfortable. 

Photo: SHS

3. Castors on its feet to allow it to move more freely about the room. 

Photo: SHS

This begs the question; where these changes in fact improvements?

1.a. Since the pieces of wood used to make the three plies are wider and taller than the individual parts of the tri-part back used in the 18th century, they would not be a measure to save raw materials. But the curve in the back would add comfort.

Photo: SHS

2.a. The springs used in the seat are stiff because they are too tightly compressed. They offer no additional comfort over an un-sprung seat.

Photo: SHS

3.a. The castors on the feet would definitely allow the chair to be moved more freely about a room.

Photo: SHS

 Some of these changes were improvements; others not so much. What I will say is that human inventive genius was illustrated through the multitude of technological  advances pioneered during the Victorian period when the blog chair was made. For more on this subject I suggest the text in Footnote 13. 

Theresa

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Footnotes
13. Edgar Mayhew and Minor Myers. The Eclectic Decades: 1865-1895 In A Documentary history of American Interiors: From the Colonial Era to 1915. New York, Scribner's. 258-262
14. Ibid

More Evidence

Today I will examine the structure of the carved back of the Chippendale style ribbon back armchair.  As mentioned earlier, its design closely follows that of a ribbon back armchair illustrated in Thomas Chippendale’s The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director, plate # 15.

Plate 15, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, third edition.

But does the construction technique of the blog chair's back follow that put forth in the Director?

There is no written mention of construction techniques in Chippendales’ Director. John T. Kirk, a Guggenheim fellow, curator, professor emeritus at Boston College and author on American furniture touches on the construction of the splat of an authentic 18^th century Philadelphia Chippendale style chair in his American Furniture; Understanding Styles, Construction and Quality. Here he is speaking of one of the famous Cadwalader chairs. “The splat area is made of three sections: a horizontal-grain piece connects the stiles; vertical parts connect it to the top rail and the shoe.”(12)

To clarify, look at the illustration below.

Plate 15, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, third edition.

The horizontal piece (1) is in the center of the back; it includes the bow and the ribbon tails and connects to the side pieces called stiles. The vertical parts are (2) above and (3) below the ribbon. Kirk mentions three pieces. I’m going to assume that each of the pieces was made of solid wood because in all my research of 18^th century furniture solid wood was always the medium used.  Also, Kirk would have mentioned if it was not.   

Here is a photo of the ribbon back blog chair. In the frontal view, the center splat is all one piece.

Photo SHS

Further, the top rail is an extension of the splat. It is joined to the stiles at about 2” down from the top of the ears. Look closely, the joint is about 1/4" below the carving.  Also there is an ever so slight color change between the two pieces. 

Photo SHS

              This is a bird’s eye view of the blog chair.  

Photo SHS

 You are looking directly at the splat (left) and top rail (right). For perspective note the chair seat in the background. A joint of the splat to the rail would be a seen as a vertical line towards the right of this image. There is no joint. Instead, two horizontal lines that are lighter than the rest of the wood finish grab your attention. This is paint that was meant to cover the fine lines of the three plied layers of the back. So the back splat IS made of three pieces of wood in an entirely different configuration than the 18th century original.

           Now look more closely at the detail photo below.

Photo SHS

Notice the fine line between the second and third layer of wood?

Plywood is hardly something that jumps to mind when thinking of good quality furniture, but in 1856 John Henry Belter obtained 4 patents for the process of laminating layers of rosewood together to construct the deeply carved and curved backs of the Rococo Revival seating furniture for which he is famous.  Many of Belter’s pieces are extant and now reside in museums.   

The survival of the blog chair is also testament to the success of the process. This Victorian reproduction was probably made around the time of America’s centennial, when Colonial Revival was all the rage. It is still in good shape.

And to wrap things up tonight, a word (or two) taken from an email from Charles F. Hummel.

“The use of three-plied wood would signify to me that the chair is definitely rococo revival. John Henry Belter, although not the first cabinetmaker to do so, is generally credited with making the use of plied wood common as a means of cutting  intricate designs in seating furniture.”

Theresa

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12. John T. Kirk, American Furniture Understanding Styles, Construction and Quality, New York, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 116.

Rolling Into the 19th Century!

All along we have been talking about features of the blog chair that could point to it being a 19^th century reproduction.

Photo: SHS

One of these factors is the presence of a sprung seat, which was discussed in the March 1st blog titled Webbing and Through Tenons. Another is the carvings: while they appear to be beautifully composed and in keeping with rococo themes, the overall composition is quite symmetric, instead of asymmetric as an 18^th century object would be.

Photo: SHS

Today we discuss the height of the seat of the blog chair. Seat heights have varied throughout the ages.  As an upholsterer, I have customized seat heights to fit many a client’s specific needs.  They range anywhere from 14” to 21” high; generally the taller seats are more contemporary.  To check myself, I just measured the seat height of a side chair here in my office and it is 18 ½ inches tall at the seat.

As mentioned yesterday, I was fortunate to have spoken with Charles Hummel after a lecture he presented at the UW-Madison last fall. We discussed the castor on the blog chair which I drew on a piece of notepaper and he identified its period of manufacture as 1820-25. 

Illustration by the author, Photo: SHS

So that would date the chair to the 19^th century, right? Again, not so fast! The castor could have been added at a later date!

One way to discern if a castor was added to a chair at a date later than its original manufacture is to examine the place where it was installed. Look for uneven saw and file marks at the tip of the chair leg; dead giveaways that an inexperienced craftsperson was making an adjustment to the circumference of the leg to make it fit the castor.

Does the leg show signs of cracking around the stem of the castor? Again, an inexperienced person would not know that if you drill directly into a chair leg, you weaken the strength of the leg. A stemmed castor would put pressure on the leg every time someone sits on it.

The blog chair castor shows no signs of tampering!

Photo: SHS

Another is to measure the height of the seat of the chair onto which the castor was installed.  If the chair seat is unusually high, the castor is evidently added on.  Trouble is, I wasn’t sure what measurement would be too high on an 18^th century chair since through experience I had seen such a wide variety of seat heights, none of which I researched.

Hummel clarified: if the seat height is greater than 17” at the rail, then the castors were added on. Well guess what?, at the seat rail we have just 17”.  

In this photo the top of the rail is at the the very top of the image under the upholstery.

Photo: SHS

The sprung seat itself reaches a height of 21”. Without the castor, the measurement from the bottom of the foot to the top of the seat rail is 15 ½”.            

The cumulative evidence is pointing directly to the blog chair as a 19^th century reproduction.

We still have more to explore, so don’t go away! 

Theresa

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Merrily we roll along....

Another clue to the blog chair’s date of manufacture OR update is castors on its feet. We’ve all seen a great deal of castors/casters on a variety of furniture. The Victorian era springs to my mind when I think of the widespread use of the small wheels fixed to the bottoms of furniture legs allowing them to be moved easily. However, while working my way through Upholstery in America & Europe from the 17th Century to World War I, Wallace Gusler, Leroy Graves and Mark Anderson include a photo of an 18^th century back stool with simple, unadorned castors on all four feet in their article on an 18^th century upholstery technique.(11) Cool!

I own two chairs I’ve identified as Victorian with castors.  One is a Rococo Revival piece and another that I will call neoclassical revival because of the urn shaped splats in the space between the arm and seat rails plus other identifying qualities. It is the neoclassical chair that sports a castor similar to the blog chair.

 

 While the top base is square and the castor here is round, both have a beaded trim along the top of their plates; the plate being the piece of metal onto which the chair leg rests. This could mean that both sets of castors are 19^th century. But does it follow that both chairs are of the 19th century?

After making this connection between the two chairs, I had to find a way to verify my hunch.  Luckily I attended a lecture on the Dominy Craftsmen at the UW-Madison last November 2010, presented by Charles Hummel, retired (but still working) Curator Emeritus at Winterthur. Per Hummel, castors sporting little beads of brass around the edge of the castor plate were first made around 1820-25. Prior to that, decoration was simpler, sometimes composed of a simple reeded trim. 

Hummel dated the castors from the sketch I provided him and shown below.

Sketch by the Author, Photo SHS

If the castors are of the 19^th century as is the upholstery technique, is the pendulum beginning to swing in the direction of the blog chair also being a 19^th century object?  Tune in tomorrow when we discuss this exciting development. 

And here is my conversation with Charles Hummel which was recorded and posted at the UW Material Culture Blog!

Theresa

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11. Cooke, Edward S. Jr., Upholstery in America and Europe from the 17^th C to WWI., Journal Article within the text: Wallace Gusler, Leroy Graves and Mark Anderson, The Technique of 18^th-Century Over-the-rail Upholstery, New York, W.W. Norton & Co. 90.