Stylish chairs, now without upholstery, this pared down aesthetic might suite a bedroom or hall?The distinctive carved foliate top-rails are a well-documented decorative device used by Godwin. Related examples are illustrated in Susan Soro''s ''The Secular Furniture on E.W. Godwin''. Here, rather than a leather padded back below the toprail there is a void, giving the chairs an altogeher lighter appearance. They are lower-slung too, at 85cm in height they are 10cm lower and 5cm deeper than the oak side chair dated 1880. While the secondary timber is mahogany rather than deal, (which was used in Godwin''s earliest ebonised furniture), the upright stiles are simply chanel-mounded, without the additional adornment of finials. In this respect they chair more in common with the settee illustrated on plate 111 of the aforementioned book and dated to around 1867.The chairs are stucturally sound with the original finish, and have some bumps and dents throughout, particularly concentrat...