Is an elbow chair the same as a carver?

Near enough. Carver is the word for the armed chair that came with a dining set, and it turns up in a fair number of titles under this heading. Elbow chair is the wider term. It covers the dining carver, the desk chair and the single hall or country armchair alike.

What wood are they usually made from?

Mahogany leads by a distance, appearing in about a third of titles, mostly on Georgian and Regency chairs sold as carvers or desk chairs. After that come the country timbers: elm, oak, yew and ash, with beech and fruitwood turning up as well. Yew is the scarcest of the Windsor woods on Sellingantiques and sits at the top of that end.

How old are most of these chairs?

Dates in the listings run from 1750 to 1940. Fewer than a third carry a clean year; the rest are given as a reign or a century, and '19th Century' alone covers a large block. Regency, Victorian, Georgian and 18th Century are the next commonest labels. Edwardian, 1900s, 1910s and 1920s together account for a substantial share, so revival-period chairs are a normal part of the supply.

Do elbow chairs come in pairs?

Around a quarter of listings are pairs. The rest are singles, which is how the form is usually met. Sets do appear: fours, sixes and eights, and on one occasion a set of fourteen Anglo-Indian ebony armchairs. Paired and set listings sit higher in the range than comparable singles.

What is a Windsor elbow chair?

A stick-back country chair with turned legs and spindles socketed into a solid seat, made mainly in elm, ash and yew. The backs are named by shape: comb back, hoop back, bow back and low back. Broad arm examples recur in Yorkshire and yew-wood chairs, and the smoker's bow is the low-backed version with a continuous bow.

Are there non-British examples under this heading?

The great bulk of it is English. Regional Windsor names run from the Thames Valley to Yorkshire, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, Lancashire, Wales and the West Country. Other origins surface once or twice each: Chinese yoke-back and horseshoe chairs, Anglo-Indian, Dutch marquetry, Flemish, Swedish, Portuguese, Italian, Breton and Syrian.

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Antique Elbow Chairs

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An elbow chair is simply a chair with arms: the carver at the head of a dining set, or a single open armchair used at a desk, in a hall or by the fire.