Padded Back Easy Chair
A padded back easy chair offers deep comfort and traditional craft, bringing heavy mahogany, walnut, and rich textiles together for practical domestic sitting.
Padded Back Easy Chair
A padded back easy chair gathers forms such as wing chairs, club armchairs, tub chairs, and fireside armchairs that privilege upholstery and comfort. These pieces emerge across the Georgian, Victorian, and early twentieth-century periods, spanning dates from the late eighteenth century through to nineteen twenty.
The versions most commonly met on this page include Victorian walnut and mahogany framed fireside armchairs, alongside Georgian style wing chairs. Makers such as Howard and Sons also appear, representing substantial English traditional seating made for country houses and domestic parlours.
Materials and construction
Frames rely upon solid timbers including mahogany and walnut, providing a sturdy architectural skeleton beneath the stuffing. These woods are shaped into armchairs, elbow chairs, and wing backs designed for daily use.
Upholstery employs velvet, textile upholstery, and fabric stretched over internal padding, often secured with brass details. Pieces such as club armchairs and recovered open armchairs demonstrate how textiles and wood combine to create deep, cushioned seating.
Some chairs are recovered, meaning they have enjoyed multiple wardrobes of fabric across their long domestic careers.
Assessing quality
Quality rests upon the proportion and scale of the wooden frame, where generous wing backs and well-turned mahogany or walnut supports distinguish finer seating. The integrity of the underlying structure dictates how successfully a piece holds its silhouette over generations.
The choice and execution of upholstery materials also separate examples, from simple fabric coverings to rich velvet and substantial textile upholstery. Maker attribution, particularly associated with firms like Howard and Sons, elevates the standing of an armchair significantly.
Howard and Sons
The Padded Back Easy Chair Glossary
- Wing chair
- An upholstered armchair with side panels or wings attached to the back, designed to shield the sitter from drafts. These forms date from the Georgian period onward.
- Club armchair
- A deep, heavily upholstered comfortable chair traditionally associated with reading rooms and country houses. It relies on a low back and sprung seating.
- Tub chair
- A curved armchair where the back and arms form a single continuous rounded enclosure. This compact form appears in early twentieth-century listings.
- Fireside armchair
- A domestic chair built for placement near a hearth, featuring a padded back and upholstered frame for warmth. Walnut and mahogany framing frequently support them.
- Open armchair
- An armchair with un-upholstered wooden arms revealing the structural frame. These pieces often feature exposed mahogany or walnut woodwork.
Padded Back Easy Chair: Frequently Asked Questions
What is a padded back easy chair?
A padded back easy chair is a traditional upholstered seat designed for domestic comfort, encompassing wing chairs, club chairs, and fireside armchairs.
These pieces feature wooden frames of mahogany or walnut combined with textile upholstery, velvet, and internal padding.
How do I identify a Georgian wing chair?
Georgian wing chairs display characteristic high backs with protective side wings and sturdy wooden frames dating from the eighteenth century or later revival periods.
They emphasise generous proportions and traditional English styling intended for drawing rooms.
What materials were used for these chairs?
Frames are primarily constructed from solid mahogany and walnut, occasionally supported by brass elements.
Upholstery materials include velvet, fabric, and heavier textiles designed to withstand regular use.
How do I live with antique armchairs?
These armchairs serve as functional seating in living spaces and studies, pairing traditional craft with everyday domestic utility.
Placing them away from direct heat sources helps preserve the wooden frames and textile upholstery.
Who made Howard and Sons armchairs?
Howard and Sons was a prominent nineteenth-century English upholstery firm known for producing comfortable club armchairs and elbow chairs.
Their pieces are sought after for their robust construction and association with high-quality country house seating.