What fabric belongs on the seat?

Most eighteenth-century examples wore worsted wool, silk damask or leather. The choice depended on the room the chair was intended for, with hardwearing leather preferred for dining spaces. Many have been recovered several times since. Unless the frame retains its original horsehair stuffing and early tacks, you can choose a textile that suits the wood and the period.

I have a set of dining chairs that look like this but the seats seem much too low for my modern table. Were people just shorter then?

Eighteenth-century dining tables were sometimes built lower than today's standard height. This made a slightly lower seat comfortable for the original owners. Another factor is historical wear. Chairs that have stood on stone or damp floors for two centuries often lose an inch or more to rot at the base of the feet. Castors were sometimes fitted originally to raise the height. Many of these have been lost over time.

Can I use these every day?

You can use a well-maintained mahogany chair for daily sitting. The timber is dense and the traditional mortise and tenon joints are highly durable. Just treat the backrest with respect. The pierced splats are the weak point and leaning back heavily can crack the fretwork.

The finish on the back of my chair is dark and cracked but the legs are quite a bit lighter and smoother. Why is that?

Sunlight causes mahogany to fade over time. The legs often catch less direct light than the backrest, which sits higher and closer to windows. Housemaids also swept and polished the lower sections aggressively. Years of rubbing against the legs can remove the darker patinated surface, leaving the wood looking lighter and smoother than the untouched upper frame.

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Antique Chippendale Chairs

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With their distinctive pierced back splats and carved cabriole legs, antique Chippendale chairs were designed in the mid-eighteenth century to provide fashionable seating for drawing rooms and dining parlours.