Queen Anne Style Setee (Ca. 1930)

The Completed Settee

It has been a while since I have written about an upholstered piece so this post is devoted to the restoration of a Queen Anne style setee made sometime in the early part of the 20th century, I am guessing around 1930. At first glance, I thought that this might be a period Queen Anne settee. For a look at the restoration of a period sofa, follow this link:

http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2010/05/queen-anne-sofa-walnut-sofa-ca-1705.html 

Upon closer inspection of the underside of this settee, it was aparant that it was a modern piece made in the Queen Anne style. With this in mind, this was a well constructed settee with a nice shaped apron and down cushion. The interior wood used for the frame was poplar placing it's origin in America and  the wood used on the legs was mahogany.

The frame was in good shape but the webbing that held the springs in place had failed causing the seat to collapse. There were also several loose joints, mostly where the front legs attached to the frame. In addition, the fabric need to be replaced and the finish needed to be cleaned and spruced up a bit. Below are a few photos of the restoration of this beautiful settee.

This photo below shows the settee prior to restoration and upholstering.

As stated above, the webbing had failed on the underside of the settee as seen here. This was a bit of a blessing  because by removing it, it be came easier to access the frame from underneath and glue the loose joinery.

This photo shows the underside of the settee with the webbing removed. The front legs are also removed in this photo so that the old glue could be scraped form the joinery and the legs glued back onto the frame.

These next two photos show the frame being glued up. The legs are also being reattached to the frame.

After the repairs were complete, I cleaned the finish on the legs and added some french polish to bring back the finish. Once all of this was done, it was off to the upholsterer to be upholstered with the new fabric. Below are a few photos of the completed settee.

Transitional Rococo - Renaissance revival 7 pc. Parlor Set Part 2

For a look at part one of this entry, here is a link:

http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2009/11/transitional-rococo-renaissance-revival.html

The next step in the process of restoring these chairs was to make all of the repairs to the frames. Most of this involved fine tuning repairs made previously by another restorer. In addition there were many cosmetic repairs to make and also loose veneer to glue down. I also included some photos of a small patch put in on the settee. Below are photos of all of these repairs.

Gluing down loose veneer on the seat frame.

More loose Veneer.

These two chairs are having loose veneer glue down. If you look closely you can see little pieces of blue masking tape on each chair. Each piece of tape marks a place where the chairs need cosmetic repair.

Gluing a patch in place on the settee.

The patch once it had dried in place.

A photo of the patch after it has been carved and sanded.

Transitional Rococo-Renaissance Revival 7 Pc. Parlor Set (Ca.1860)

I have been working recently on a set of Victorian parlor furniture. the set consists of a Setee, a Gentleman's chair (with full arms), a Ladies chair (Similar chair without arms) and a set of four side chairs (smaller versions of the Ladies chair). This set of seating furniture dates from 1860 – 1880. The overall style of the furniture is Rococo while showing some Renaissance Revival elements (Mostly in the crest carving). The Rococo Revival Movement (1840-1865) in furniture overlapped with the Renaissance Revival Movement (1860-1880) and in fact was in production to some extend for the second half of the 19th Century. These pieces come from the Late Rococo period and show the influence of machines in the fabrication of furniture. The ornate hand carved elements seen in the earlier Rococo examples have been simplified for the mass production of furniture. While this is the case, sections of the chairs were definitely carved by hand as creating these pieces by machine alone would have been impossible at this point in time.

The ornamentation of Rococo Revival tended to use foliage and fruit motifs as accents while the later Renaissance Revival movement drew inspiration from architectural motifs. The design of the crest rail draws more inspiration from the later period. The overall lines of the set including use of Cabriole legs points towards Rococo (True Renaissance Revival pieces would often have a turned front leg.) For these reasons one can refer to these pieces as being transitional. Transitional pieces like these are often found during this time because manufacturers had an easier time creating and blending these styles. This in no way diminishes the value of a piece.

The set came to me without upholstery and in need of mostly cosmetic repair. There was some gluing of the frames to be done first however, and I have posted Photos of the gluing process.

What is interesting about these chairs is that when gluing them, a restorer has to be creative with clamping since there are now square edges. I find that it is easiest and most effective to use ratcheting band clamps to get a good strong bond. The photos below show these and other clamping ideas in action.

Several of the chairs had loose joinery in the base which needed to be cleaned and glued.Gluing up the Ladies chair with multiple band clamps.Tightening a loose joint.Gluing the arms on the Gentleman's chair using clamps clamped to block clampsA fuzzy picture of one of the side chairs being glued upGluing a joint with F clamps clamped to block clamps