Set of 10 Chairs
A set of ten antique chairs is a dining set sold as one lot, normally eight singles and two carvers, made to seat a long table.
Set of 10 Chairs
Sets of ten are dining chairs first and foremost: 132 of 164 titles say so. The usual make-up is eight single chairs plus two carvers or armchairs, which dealers write into the title as "(8+2)" or "8 singles + 2 armchairs". Mahogany is the commonest timber, named in 66 titles, and "dining chairs" appears in 130.
The likeliest set you'll meet is mahogany, 19th or early 20th century, with a shaped back. Victorian is the single commonest label at 34 titles, and the balloon back is the most-named individual pattern. Shield backs, ribbon backs and Chippendale-style and Hepplewhite-style carving run through the mahogany group.
Behind that sits a country group of about a quarter: oak, ash and elm kitchen sets with ladder backs, spindle backs, Windsor stick and hoop backs, smokers bows and rush seats. Regional patterns get named specifically, so Lancashire spindle backs and Yorkshire Dales chairs turn up as such rather than as generic country seating.
Dating is looser than it looks. Eighty-nine listings carry a clean year, spanning 1800 to 1940, but the biggest bucket is "19th Century", a period name rather than a date. Add the 1900s, 1910s, 1920s and 1930s together and the early 20th century outweighs the explicitly 19th-century entries, several of them openly Regency revival, Hepplewhite revival or Georgian design. Continental and painted sets are the rarest thing here, single Dutch, Spanish, Swedish, Italian and French examples.
Top And Bottom
Timber sets the range. Walnut, rosewood and figured mahogany hold the upper end, and the highest-priced entries on Sellingantiques are a walnut set and three matching rosewood sets listed together. Oak, bentwood bistro chairs and plain kitchen sets sit at the bottom, useful seating rather than furniture with a case to make.
Then whether the ten were made together. Titles say "True Set of Ten" when the dealer means it, and "matched" or "harlequin" when the chairs were gathered from one family rather than one run. Two sampled sets are described outright as harlequin, and the matched and harlequin sets sit in the lower half of the range. The number itself is unstable: some listings are really twelve, sold as "10 plus 2".
Carving and period do the rest. Carved, inlaid and pierced work clusters in the upper half, and titles separate period from copy: "Regency period", "George IV", "late George III period" against "Regency-style", "Hepplewhite revival", "Georgian design". The style pieces are largely 1900s to 1930s and priced accordingly. Upholstered and leather seats appear across the whole range, rush and plank seats belong to the country group.
Set of 10 Chairs Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for set of 10 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 latest dated set on Sellingantiques is ten Windsor armchairs put at 1940, when most of the archive is a century older.
The Set of 10 Chairs Glossary
- 8 + 2
- Eight single chairs plus two carvers or armchairs, the usual make-up of a set of ten. Written in titles as "(8+2)" or spelled out as "8 singles + 2 armchairs".
- Carver
- The wider chair with arms, normally placed at the head of the table. A set of ten usually contains two of them.
- Balloon back
- Victorian back with a rounded, waisted outline. Named in eleven titles, which makes it the commonest single pattern in this category.
- Harlequin set
- Chairs that are compatible but not identical, gathered into a set. Dealers use the word explicitly, and it appears in two of the sampled titles.
- Shield back
- Back shaped like a shield, derived from late 18th-century design. It recurs through the mahogany sets.
- Smokers bow
- Low Windsor-type chair with a continuous arm sweeping round the back. Two elm sets in the samples are described this way.
Set of 10 Chairs: Frequently Asked Questions
How many sets of ten come up each year?
Around fourteen sets of ten reach the market on Sellingantiques in a year, so it isn't a category you can browse at leisure.
Sixty-five different dealers have listed one. Most of them have handled exactly one, which tells you these arrive as one-off finds rather than regular stock.
Why do some listings say ten but describe twelve?
The number ten is quietly unstable in this category. Several listings are really twelve chairs sold as "10 plus 2", meaning ten singles and two carvers.
Others use ten as the true total, made up as eight singles and two armchairs. The title usually spells out which arrangement is meant.
What does a matched set mean?
It means the chairs were brought together to make a set rather than made as one run. Dealers say "matched" where they mean it, and "harlequin" where the chairs are compatible but not identical.
Titles also flag the opposite case, with wording like "True Set of Ten". Matched and harlequin sets sit in the lower half of the range.
Are country sets of ten common?
About a quarter of the category is country and kitchen seating in oak, ash and elm.
Ladder backs, spindle backs, Windsor stick and hoop backs, smokers bows and rush seats all appear. Regional names come with them, including Lancashire spindle backs and Yorkshire Dales chairs.
How old are these sets usually?
The dated field runs from 1800 to 1940 across the eighty-nine listings that carry a clean year. Much of the rest is given as a period name, with "19th Century" the largest single label.
Add the 1900s through the 1930s together and the early 20th century outnumbers the explicitly 19th-century entries. Genuinely 18th-century and earlier sets appear only occasionally, one Derbyshire set of back stools going back to around 1680.
Do any unusual sets turn up?
Institutional seating appears once in a blue moon: chapel and church chairs with cross backs and book holders, and one set carrying a Rugby School head boy association.
Continental sets are the rarest origin, single Dutch, Spanish, Swedish, Italian and French examples. The latest dated piece in the samples is a set of ten Windsor armchairs put at 1940.