Red Upholstered Side Chair
A red upholstered side chair brings rich colour and compact seating to a room, drawing on centuries of timber framing and textile tradition.
Forms and periods
A red upholstered side chair appears across Victorian, 19th Century, and 18th Century periods, encompassing side chairs, hall chairs, nursing chairs, accent chairs, and occasional chairs.
The pieces on this page span styles from Victorian and Victorian Rococo Revival to Gothic Revival and Georgian, showing how makers adapted seating for parlours, bedrooms, and halls.
Materials and construction
Frames rely on timbers such as mahogany, rosewood, and oak, shaped with hand-carved backs and structural joinery.
Upholstery incorporates fabric, velvet, wool tapestry, and brass elements, securing the textile finish to the rigid wooden skeletons.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for red upholstered side chair, 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.
Listings span multiple centuries, uniting Victorian, 19th Century, and 18th Century examples in mahogany, rosewood, oak, and varied upholstery fabrics.
Judging the work
The distinction between standard and superior pieces rests on the crispness of the hand-carving in the timber frame and the depth of the joinery.
Finer examples maintain structural integrity alongside well-executed upholstery work that respects the period style of the wooden chassis.
Howard And Sons
The Red Upholstered Side Chair Glossary
- Side Chair
- A lightweight chair without arms designed primarily for dining or auxiliary seating around a room.
- Nursing Chair
- A low-seated chair historically used in bedrooms and nurseries for comfort.
- Gothic Revival
- A nineteenth-century design movement drawing architectural motifs from medieval forms.
- Mahogany
- A durable, reddish-brown tropical hardwood favoured for fine cabinet-making.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where should I place a side chair?
A side chair functions well in hallways, bedrooms, and corners where space is limited but additional seating is needed.
Its compact frame allows it to sit against a wall or accompany a desk without dominating the room.
What is a nursing chair?
A nursing chair is typically built with a lower seat than standard dining chairs, originally designed for seated tasks in domestic chambers.
These pieces frequently pair carved wooden frames with plush upholstered seats and backs.
How do 18th century chairs differ?
Eighteenth-century examples showcase earlier structural lines, often utilising mahogany, oak, or elm in Georgian and Chippendale styles.
Construction focuses on restrained joinery and classical proportions rather than heavy Victorian ornamentation.