What's it worth? Appraisal of carved black walnut chair
furniture |
Email Article Marshall asks:
Wally,
I would love to know how old this chair is, its maker and value. A furniture repair person who came to repair an antique table of mine instantly recognized the chair and made a comment that it came from Austria and said that it was made by a famous person, whose name I forgot.
I’m including some pics of the chair. I can send individual ones if you like. I’ve looked all over and under the chair and found no written info about anything anywhere.
Thanks,
Marshall

AW says
Marshall, that’s a great chair. This is a 19th Century period chair (mid-1800s) in the Jacobean style, the original Jacobean period was from 1603– 1625.
The reason that we know this is not an original period chair is the construction methods used, most noticeably, the multiple pieces of wood used to make up the back, top crest of the chair, where one piece of wood would have been used for an original period chair.
It’s possible that the furniture repair person referred to it as a Jacobean chair, and you took that to be the name of the maker. The reason I say this, is that there were many skilled craftsmen in Austria and Germany at the time this could have carved this chair. Since it’s not marked, it’s almost impossible to determine the maker for sure. Multiple data research checks, show no specific artist at the time who this can easily be attributed to.
That matters little as the chair will stand on it’s own merit as a wonderful work. The high relief carving is excellent and the detailing on the chair seat show that this is the work of someone with quite a bit of skill who took an ample amount of time to make this piece.
Retail value: $1,725 - $200
Wholesale value: $900
Keywords = Black Walnut, carved chair, high relief, Jacobean style, 19th century, leather seat, Austrian, Germanic,







