How many chairs are usually in a set?

Six is the commonest number by some way, with fours and eights behind it and pairs behind those. Single chairs turn up too. Beyond eight the numbers keep going. The samples include sets of ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen and eighteen, plus one set of twenty.

What timber are most of them made from?

Mahogany, named in close to two-fifths of titles. Oak is next, then walnut, rosewood, elm and ash. The timber tends to follow the type. Polished hardwoods belong to town chairs; elm, ash and beech belong to the country and kitchen end.

Does a Chippendale style set mean it's 18th century?

No. Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Queen Anne and Sheraton work as style words in these titles, describing the pattern rather than the date. Sets carrying those words sit largely in the 1900s to 1930s dated buckets. Titles that mean the earlier thing tend to say George III period or Regency period instead.

What counts as a country dining chair?

Windsor, ladderback and spindle back chairs, with rush, elm or penny seats, made in workshops that carried on older vernacular forms while town shops followed fashion. They come with their own geography. Lancashire, Thames Valley, Ormskirk, Yorkshire, North Wales and East Anglia each surface in titles, though only in ones and twos.

Are there many foreign sets in this category?

Not many. French is the only Continental origin common enough to register in the term counts at all. Everything else is scattered singletons: Swedish painted, Biedermeier birch, Dutch marquetry, Italian walnut, Portuguese, Spanish leather and Anglo-Indian sets have all passed through.

How old are the oldest ones on Sellingantiques?

The dated field starts at 1700, but 17th-century oak has come through, including a Yorkshire wainscot armchair dated to the 1630s and a Charles II side chair. At the other end the field runs to 1960. Around 660 chairs and sets are listed in a year, across 344 dealers.