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How to Identify an Antique Folding Chair

Modern-day folding chairs are usually lightweight, compact, made of plastic and fairly inexpensive. But historically, folding chairs were used to seat royalty dating back to ancient times in Egypt, Rome, Greece and England. The chairs were often ornately decorated with inlaid wood and ivory carvings, hand-crafted from exceptional wood. Later, during the Middle Ages, people used the folding chair as a religious piece for ritualistic purposes. Identifying antique folding chairs, if done correctly, can uncover a wealth of historical significance, not to mention monetary gain.

Instructions

- 1
  Find a maker's mark or brand stamp on the chair by flipping the chair over. The maker's mark is usually a combination of the manufacturer's name or symbol with the date of creation. Manufacturers generally stamped the marks on the underside of furniture, such as the bottom side of the chair seat.
- 2
  Look for marks of unevenness, tool marks, crystalized glue residue or even handmade nails as signs of hand craftsmanship. Handmade nails usually have square heads, and there will be blackened spots around the nail from iron corrosion.
- 3
  Make sure the chair has been used by finding marks of wear and tear. Look at the worn components mostly around the feet's base and chair rails. Also, check the thickness of the veneer. Thicker veneers were used in olden days as opposed to thinner veneers used now.
- 4
  Check the construction of the chair, more specifically, a method called mortise and tenon, where parts are cut like jigsaw puzzles and fitted together with glue and nails.
- 5
  Identify the genre of the chair by looking at the style and materials used to build it. The style can fall into categories such as Georgian, Victorian, Queen Anne, Federal American, etc. Look at the trims and decor of the chair and compare it with period chairs falling into those styles. You can research this with books or online resources.

Antiques