Someone asked me to repair and varnish his chairs. I was surprised when I saw what was underneath: springs and strips of metal! I have no idea where these chairs were made or how old they are. I live in Quebec, and the chairs probably were made in Canada. Can you provide any information about them? – Richard Theoret
Tim Inman: Upholstery like this has been used from pre-WW I until today. So, this underpinning is not a very good dating tool. Almost certainly, your chairs can be located in the era of the Grand Rapids furniture heyday. There are excellent books showing the furniture of this time period. One I have in my library that gets a lot of use is “Grand Rapids Furniture: The Story of America’s Furniture City” by Christian G. Carron. Old Sears catalogs would be a good reference, too.
