Antique Cabriole Stools
A small upholstered seat raised on S-curved legs, made to stand at a dressing table, in a window recess, by a fire or free in the middle of a room.
Antique Cabriole Stools
The cabriole leg curves out at the knee and in towards the foot. It came into English furniture in the early eighteenth century and was put on stools as readily as on chairs and tables. In this category the leg does the defining: some form of the word appears in over 150 of 323 titles, while the seat itself is described in the loosest terms.
The stool you are most likely to meet is Victorian, walnut, on carved legs, with an upholstered seat. Victorian appears in 126 titles and walnut in 123. Mahogany and rosewood are the other two staple frames; oak, beech, elm, teak and birch turn up only as a scattering. Twenty-seven titles offer stools as pairs.
Around half the category is Victorian walnut and rosewood salon, centre and window stools. Dressing, foot and boudoir stools take about a fifth. Another fifth is Georgian and Queen Anne revival work, mostly later copies dated 1880 to 1930. Edwardian and 1920s mahogany piano, music and duet stools form a small pocket, and French, painted and giltwood stools fewer still.
Dating needs care. The field runs 1760 to 1930, but the two largest buckets are simply "Victorian" (59) and "19th Century" (59), which say the dealer isn't being precise. Where decades are given they cluster in the 1860s to 1890s, then again around 1900 and the 1920s. A title naming George I or Queen Anne is naming a design, not a date.
Where The Range Splits
Carving separates the ends of the range more than anything else. Carved appears in 51 titles, carved walnut in 17, and the upper end reads as carved walnut freestanding stools and finely carved mahogany frames. At the bottom the title is often three words and no more: walnut stool, and that's it.
Size does the next largest share of the work. Large appears in 30 titles and clusters in the upper half: big centre stools, window seats, a five-foot longstool, a 120cm stool on six cabriole legs. Small pieces sit at the other end. Timber follows the same pattern, with walnut and rosewood above beech, birch and ebonised frames.
Then there's the question of period against revival. Only nine listings are dated 18th Century, against 118 given as Victorian or 19th Century, so genuinely early stools are outnumbered roughly six to one by later stools made to their designs. Georgian-dated pieces sit high in the range, and so do pairs, which recur through the upper reaches.
Antique Cabriole Stools Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for cabriole stools, 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.
About thirty-three cabriole stools are listed on Sellingantiques each year, and 124 different dealers have handled one.
The Antique Cabriole Stools Glossary
- Cabriole leg
- A leg curving outward at the knee and inward towards the foot. Named in over 150 titles as leg, legs or legged.
- Dressing stool
- A low stool made for a dressing table, and the single most common named use here after the plain stool itself.
- Window seat
- A long stool made to sit in a window recess. Eleven titles use the term, and they run large.
- Centre stool
- A larger stool meant to stand free in a room rather than against a wall. Eight titles.
- Duet stool
- A wide piano stool for two players, sitting alongside the nine piano-stool titles, several Edwardian mahogany with rise-and-fall or lift-up seats.
- In the style of
- A later stool made to an earlier design. Common here for George I, George II and Queen Anne, usually with a date between 1880 and 1930.
Antique Cabriole Stools: Frequently Asked Questions
What wood are cabriole stools usually made from?
Walnut is the house timber, named in 123 of 323 titles. Mahogany follows with 64 and rosewood with 43.
Everything else is thin on the ground. Oak, beech, elm, birch and teak appear as occasional listings rather than a strand, along with a Goncalo Alves example.
How old are most of these stools?
The dated field runs from 1760 to 1930, with 146 listings carrying a clean year. The two biggest groups, though, are simply "Victorian" and "19th Century", 59 apiece.
Where a decade is given, the 1860s lead, then the 1880s and 1870s. A second cluster sits at the 1900s and 1920s. Only nine listings are dated 18th Century.
Does a Queen Anne style stool date from that period?
No. Style names describe the design, not the year. Titles reading George I style or Queen Anne style commonly carry dates between 1880 and 1930.
These revivals make up roughly a fifth of the category. Stools of the actual eighteenth century are far fewer and sit high in the range.
Are cabriole stools often sold in pairs?
Pairs appear in 27 titles, so they're a regular feature without being the norm.
Pairs of window seats, footstools and rosewood stools recur through the upper half of the range.
What kinds of seat coverings turn up?
Titles name upholstered seats 30 times, and beyond that the coverings mentioned are needlework, needlepoint and tapestry, leather or hide, and buttoned work.
Seats are described loosely in titles across the category. The frame and the legs get the detail.
How many cabriole stools come up for sale?
Around 33 are listed a year on Sellingantiques, and 124 different dealers have handled one.
That spread tells you something: almost nobody specialises in them. They arrive as part of a general stock rather than from a dedicated seller.