Posted 11 years ago
Michele72
(1 item)
We got this chair from my grandmothers estate. It adjusts up and down and has initials along with some symbols written in pencil on the underside of the seat. I have searched and searched and have not been able to find one even remotely similar to it. I would love to find out more about it if anyone has any information on it.
Michele72, thanks for posting you chair and welcome to CW!!! Very interesting piece you have here. It may be useful to take a few more pictures. I would recommend getting a shot of the bottom of the seat, and any other joints that may be visible.
It is hard to see what is going on here...but the fact that it is adjustible makes me think a few things: 1) some sort of recliner, or an early easy chair. 2) perhaps this was used for someone with a disability or an elderly person who was confined to the chair for most of the day. The high seat makes me think that. What are the measurements? Is this very heavy. Looks like walnut.
Hi BHock45, Thank you for the reply and the welcome!! I'm trying to add more pictures but I'm not having any luck with it. I'll keep working at it but in the meantime I'll tell you what I can about the chair. It measures approximately 35" tall X 18 1/2" across the front X 12 1/2" front to back. The back does not recline, the seat is the only part that is adjustable up and down and it looks like there are 4 heights it can be set at.
My aunt, who was born in 1938, was handicapped. The doctors said she wouldn't live past the age of 5 and she just passed away this past year at the age of 74. She was 100% wheelchair bound so I am pretty sure the chair was for her maybe for dinner time so she could sit at the table with the rest of the family??
I would really love to find out more about it. I showed it to two antique people in our area and they both said they had never seen anything like it and didn't really know what it was. I just started doing helping out another antique store in town and just from describing it to the owner, she thought some sort of invalid chair.
I'll keep working on those pictures, if I can't get it to add them to this post, I'll make a new post so you can see the other pictures.
Thank You!
Michele72, thank you for giving us so much detail about your grandmother and this interesting piece of furniture. I am very sorry about your loss, and from what you have described it seems like your grandmother was a remarkable woman!
Looks like my second assumption was correct. I used to be into old chairs, and frequently came across old wheelchairs. This is not a wheel chair, as its primary function is not ambulation. I do not see rear wheels. Is that correct? Were they cut off? I think I see castors in the front though. If I had to make a further assumption, I would say this was a mid 1900's Victorian Reproduction which was modified to give the individual access to tables at different heights/angles.
As far as the marking in chalk/white pencil...I feel that this cursive is very distintive and maybe even not in English. I see Ann or AM (as in the morning) if it is English. It looks like 1770 underneath it. However, I am sure this is not the date as the turnings are too perfect. Vetraio50 is great at deciphering writing, dates, and markings, hope he sees this.
I am going to check some of my books in the meanwhile. Best of luck!!!
Just thought of this, another possibility is that the adjustable seat helped with using the bathroom, bathing or showering.
Thanks for all the info! There are no rear wheels and it appears it was made that way, it doesn't look like anything was cut off. I'm still not having any luck adding more pictures to this post so I'm going to add them as a new post :-)
Hmmmm...........looks like I'm going to have trouble adding any new pictures. It says it's uploaded but the pictures never show up? Any thoughts or suggestions?
Hey michele72, sometimes when CW is really busy it is real slow or they do not show up. Try sometime during the day or maybe in the morning on a weekday.
Okay, I'll try it in the morning :-).
Thanks so much!!
Michele
I'm really glad I read your post because I have a drop leaf table that can be raised up and down too! I hope you find out everything you would like to know about your unique chair.
Okay, still not able to add any more pics. Not sure why, I see others being added so it must be something on my end...... I uploaded all the pictures to my photobucket album here: http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u187/Benson_Quarter_Horses/Grandmas%20Chair/
I hope it's okay that I posted the link. If not, just let me know and I'll remove it.
Thank You!
Michele