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Page 30 The Antique Shoppe December, 2017
One type of chair that everyone is familiar with is the ever present Windsor chair. But why are
Common Sense there so many of them and what is the basis for America’s love affair with that type chair?
The word “Windsor” is usually capitalized in deference to the supposed point of origin of this
style chair, the area around the town of Windsor, England, in the early 18th century. However,
ANTIQUES many furniture repair people, who have struggled with legs and spindles jutting out at odd angles
as they try to repair the chair, are less generous and do not accord it the honor of capitalization.
A Windsor chair is one in which all the legs terminate in the seat. In addition all upper members
Main St
of the chair - stiles, spindles and hoops also terminate either in the seat or into each other and
no single part of the entire chair is continuous from the top of the chair to ground level. In other
by Fred Taylor words, it is a platform supported by legs. The platform in turn supports the upper structure.
The early appeal of the Windsor was its elementary construction. It is said that 18th century
English peasants made the chairs with nothing more than a pocket knife, whittling out legs and
Exit
spindles from green limbs and implanting them in a thick plank for the seat. It’s actually a little
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THE STICK CHAIR more difficult than that but it makes a good story. The “stick” chair quickly made its way to the
405 construction was initially centered around Philadelphia.
Colonies in the 1730s where Windsor
Introduction To The Windsor And almost immediately the chairs, like the Colonists who made them, took on American forms
that differentiated them from their English origins. The very earliest American Windsors had
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405
407 TITUSVILLE
TITUSVILLE

MELBOURNE Bay Blvd

GRANT

SEBASTIAN

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528

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520 Forrest Ave.
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Phone: 321.726.6778 • 5900 U.S. Hwy. 1•Grant, FL 615 1
On Florida’s Scenic East Coast - Between Sebastian & Melbourne 68
Open Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm • Sunday 12-5pm 70 Virginia 1
grantantiquemall@reagan.com • GrantAntiqueMall.com FT. PIERCE
4 3 95 95 716

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