Antique Barber Chairs
A barber's chair is a seat built to tilt, recline or rise, so a barber could hold a customer's head steady for a shave or a cut.
Antique Barber Chairs
Purpose-built barber's chairs came in during the second half of the 19th century, as barbering moved into fixed shops. The point of them was a seat that reclined and adjusted in height. The same frame suited dentists and other trades, which is why the two descriptions overlap so often.
What comes up on Sellingantiques is the cabinetmaker's version rather than the heavy cast-iron and porcelain pedestal type: single chairs of wood and upholstery, in beech, oak, mahogany or an ebonised finish, with leather seats. The word "barbers" carries eight of the thirteen titles on record, and ten of those thirteen sit in the late 19th century, the Edwardian years or around 1900.
Dating is loose. The dealers' own years run from 1890 to 1930, but only five of the thirteen give a clean date; the rest lean on "19th Century", "Edwardian" or "Circa 1900". Where a broad 19th-century label appears, the title hint tends to say late Victorian rather than early. Nothing after about 1930 is in the record at all.
It's a thin category. Around one listing a year, and the thirteen examples come from thirteen different dealers, so nobody carries them as a line. Two are pairs rather than singles, one described as Parisien and one as American bentwood. A child's mahogany barber's chair turns up once and nowhere else.
Where The Range Sits
The mechanism does most of the work. Titles that name the chair as adjustable or reclining sit through the middle and upper part of the range, while the plainest descriptions, with no working action mentioned, sit at the bottom. A barber's chair without a stated action is a chair; with one, it's the thing it was made to be.
After that it's specificity. Beech, oak, mahogany and ebonised each appear exactly once in the titles, and those listings cluster above the frames described by period alone. So do the ones naming a place or a movement, Parisien, American, Arts & Crafts oak. Both pair listings sit high; two matching chairs is how a shop would have used them, and it's rarer here than a single.
A workshop name is no guide either way. Only one title in thirteen names one at all, and it sits near the bottom. The whole spread from cheapest to most expensive is narrow for a category this small, so the gaps between these chairs are gaps of description more than of grade.
Antique Barber Chairs Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for barber chairs, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
The most expensive barber chair ever sold on Sellingantiques was a late 19th century barbers and dentists chair, in February 2020.
The Antique Barber Chairs Glossary
- Adjustable
- The seat or headrest raises, lowers or locks at a chosen position. Two titles here use the word.
- Reclining
- The back tilts away from upright to lay the sitter down. Two titles carry it.
- Barber's / dentist's chair
- The same adjustable form sold under either trade name, and two listings use both at once.
- Ebonised
- Wood stained and polished black in imitation of ebony. One of the four finishes named in titles.
- Bentwood
- Frame members steam-bent into curves rather than cut and jointed. One example in the record, an American pair.
- Parisien
- A dealer's spelling for a French chair, and the only continental attribution anywhere in the category.
Antique Barber Chairs: Frequently Asked Questions
Why are they sold as dentist's chairs too?
The adjustable reclining frame served more than one trade. A dentist wanted the same thing a barber did: a customer laid back with the head held at a workable height.
Two of the thirteen listings on record sell the chair under both names at once, so the overlap is written into the descriptions rather than guessed at.
What period do most of them come from?
Ten of the thirteen are dated to the late 19th century, the Edwardian years or around 1900. The dealers' own dating runs from 1890 at the earliest to 1930 at the latest.
Only five give a clean year. The rest use labels: "19th Century" four times, "Edwardian" three, "Circa 1900" once.
Are these the big cast-iron pedestal chairs?
No. Nothing in this archive is the heavy cast-iron and porcelain type. What's on record is the cabinetmaker's chair, wooden-framed and upholstered.
Beech, oak, mahogany and ebonised finishes each appear once in the titles, with leather seats mentioned across the descriptions.
Do barber's chairs come in pairs?
Occasionally. Two of the thirteen listings are pairs rather than single chairs, which is how a working shop would have had them.
Both sit in the upper part of the range. One is described as Parisien, the other as American bentwood.
Which makers turn up on these chairs?
Almost none. Only one title in thirteen names a workshop at all, and that name sits near the bottom of the range rather than above it.
Description here runs on period, timber and mechanism instead. One listing attaches a design movement, an oak chair called Arts & Crafts.
Were child-sized barber's chairs made?
One turns up in the record, a child's mahogany barber's chair, and nowhere else.
Everything else on Sellingantiques in this category is full size.