Hitchcock Style High Chair 3 (1970)

The Completed High Chair

Deja Vu all over again! One of the interesting side effects of writing this blog is that several of my posts have been read by people with a similar or, in this case, the exact piece of furniture. These customers then contact me, often with questions, or in some cases, to restore one just like the one that I did for another customer.

One of these reoccurring themes in my work was a high chair made in the style of furniture made by Lambert Hitchcock. These "Hitchcock High Chairs" were made in the 20th century (I am guessing around 1970). All of the examples I have worked on are maple with black paint on the majority of the chair. The crest rail is stenciled in the manner of Hitchcock chairs of the 19th century. I have yet to work on a white painted version, but they do exist.

I do not know if it was the 1970's incarnation of the Hitchcock Chair Company that made these chairs or if they were made by another company. I do know that in most cases, I can restore them and people from far and wide are contacting me to do so. So without further adieu, I bring you the third Hitchcock high chair to grace my shop.

I only got one photo of the chair as it came into the shop, and it was only a photo of the seat. The finish had peeled off of the unpainted portion of the seat and tray.

The process of restoration can be read in the links below to my earlier posts. The only thing we did differently was to finish the natural portions without staining them, which looked quite nice!

Hitchcock High Chair No.1:
http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2011/06/hitchcock-style-high-chair-ca1970.html

Hitchcock High Chair No.2:
http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2011/08/hitchcock-style-high-chair-2-1970.html

If anyone is looking for one of these chairs, I have one that I would love to sell. It needs a bit of work, but I can do that. Please feel free to email or call me at 703-727-5691 if you are interested!

Hitchcock Style High Chair 2 (1970)

Deja Vu! Back in June I restored a Hitchcock Style high chair made around 1970 for a customer. Soon after I finished the high chair and wrote a post about it I was contacted by someone looking to buy that chair. Unfortunately the chair was not for sale and I directed this customer to similar examples for sale on the internet. Several weeks later my friend Jesse was in an antique store in Brunswick, Maryland, and saw the exact high chair for sale. After an email to the customer, I drove over to the store and purchased the chair. It was in similar condition to the first one I had worked on and needed the same work. The result was that I restored a second Hitchcock high chair. below are several photos of the restoration as well as the finished product. I have also included a link to the first high chair below:

http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2011/06/hitchcock-style-high-chair-ca1970.html

These first four photos show the high chair after I bought it. The second photo shows a crack in the seat that was repaired. The third photo shows areas where the black paint had chipped off.

 The customer wanted to have the wood parts refinished like the other one that I had worked on. Here is a photo of the seat after the finish was removed followed by another photo of the tray and foot rest with the finish removed.

 These next two photos show the wood parts after they were sanded and stained.

 The next two photos show the chair during the finishing process.

 Here are some photos of the completed chair. All of the black paint was touched up. After these photos were taken the chair was packed and shipped to the customer.

Hitchcock Style High Chair (ca.1970)

Another piece I have recently restored is a Hitchcock style high chair. I figure it was made around 1970, but it could be older or younger. The chair was in pretty good shape, except that the finish had deteriorated. The black painted areas and the stenciling were in good enough condition to restore, so I selectively masked off the wood areas and removed the finish from these sections only. I then sanded and stained those areas and applied shellac to those areas. After the finish was built up a little, I started to coat the entire chair. The worn areas on the black surfaces were touched up and the chair was eventually waxed. The beauty of using a shellac finish on this piece is that it is a child friendly finish and now the high chair is ready to use!

Below are photos of the entire restoration process.

Here are a few photos of the chair as it came to me.



The next few photos show the chair after the natural wood areas has been stripped and sanded.



These next few photos show the same sections after they were stained.


These last few photos show the finished product.