How many salon chairs come up for sale each year?

Around sixty-eight salon chairs and pairs come to market on Sellingantiques in a year, and 162 different dealers have listed them. That makes it one of the most widely stocked seating categories on the site. The spread of dealers matters more than the total. It means the field is broad rather than dominated by a handful of specialists.

Are they usually sold as pairs or singles?

Pairs. 'Pair' appears in nearly half of all titles, and single chairs are outnumbered by matched pairs roughly two to one. Larger groups exist above that. Sets of six, eight, nine and ten recur, and the largest group recorded is a set of twelve oak-framed chairs.

What woods were used for the frames?

Walnut leads, named in about a quarter of titles, with mahogany next and rosewood behind it. Oak turns up in the larger sets. Gilded and painted frames form a smaller group, including giltwood, gilt gesso, parcel gilt and silver gilt. Papier mâché and japanned frames, mother-of-pearl inlay and bone inlay each appear once, at the decorative fringe.

Which periods do these chairs come from?

The dated field spans 1750 to 1960. Decades where they are given cluster in the 1850s and 1860s, the 1880s and 1890s, and the 1910s and 1920s. Much of the labelling is broader than that, giving only '19th Century', 'Victorian', 'Edwardian' or '1900s'. A handful of dates fall between the 1930s and 1960.

Do any unusual origins turn up in this category?

A few, each as a single occurrence: a set attributed as Scandinavian or possibly Russian, a Belgian pair, Piedmontese and Barocchetto Italian armchairs, a Swedish satin birch pair and a Franco-Chinese pair. Brass-framed chairs are the other oddity, appearing only a few times against an overwhelmingly timber-framed field, including a 1920s solid brass example and a pair described as Italian.

Were salon chairs ever made for children?

Rarely. Two examples appear across the whole archive: a child's inlaid Art Nouveau chair, and a pair of gilded and painted children's salon chairs. Everything else in the category is adult seating.

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Antique Salon Chairs

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A salon chair is a light framed occasional chair for the reception room, upholstered on a show-wood frame and made to be moved about and grouped for conversation.