How Do You Identify Original Windsor Bowback Chairs?
Originally designed and built in the United Kingdom, the Windsor chair was quickly adopted and manufactured by craftsmen from southern New England, New York and Philadelphia. Unlike many of the more formal chair designs of the period, the Windsor bowback was simple to build and inexpensive to manufacture, making it very popular throughout the American colonies. Determining if a chair is an original Windsor bowback requires an examination of the chair’s construction and materials. Examine the manner in which the pieces of the chair are joined together. Windsors are “stick built” chairs. The various pieces of a Windsor are turned on a lathe and have round tenons that fit neatly into round sockets. A Windsor chair will not have any “squared ” joints. Consider the legs of the chair. Windsor bowbacks have legs that are widely splayed and run from the seat to the floor. Traditionally the legs are approximately 17.5 inches long. Examine the chair back. The back of a Windsor bowback has a shar
