Our client had six original Stickley chairs, some of which had their original upholstery. They have been in her family for 6 generations, bought in Chicago in 1907.
We will offer thorough documentation images on two of the chairs, an armless
Chair 3, third image above, and the armchair, Chair 6, shown right.
We will document the treatment by
choosing the best chair images for
the part of the documentation at hand.
You can find which chair it is (if not stated) by clicking on the photo, as they are named.
We photographed the chairs with and without flash, and chose the best images.
Above, an examples of no flash (left) or flash (right) changes the colors
of the chairs (Chair 2 before treatment).
The color without flash is accurate; the chairs have no red tinge.
The sections below are BEFORE, REPAIR, FINISH, UPHOLSTERY and AFTER. In AFTER, we show comparisons of before and after images on all of the chairs.
BEFORE
CHAIR 3
Chair 3 had structural issues. The chair was rickety and
unbalanced on its feet. One of the legs was too short, and this may have
caused the loosening of many rung connections.
Mitchell surmise the shortened leg was original to the chair,
because we cannot think of a scenario which would
not have been discovered in our inspection.
The general disintegration of the chair’s leather is evident.
The historic finish was in good condition, but needed to be cleaned.
ARMCHAIR, OR CHAIR 6
The Arm Chair was structurally intact. The original finish was in good condition,
but in need of cleaning. The leather needed to be replaced.
The Arm Chair was a better sample of what treatment
would be performed on all the other chairs.
SUMMARY: All of the leather was to be replaced on all the chairs.
All of the historic finish was in need of cleaning and would be waxed.
Other than Chair 3, only minor frame repairs on Chair 1 were necessary.
REPAIR
CHAIR 3
Chair 3 was to be completely disassembled.
We removed the seat and set it aside to be upholstered later.
Corner blocks were removed and set aside. The chair back was gently tapped
off the seat frame, exposing the seat rung connections.
The shorted leg was made longer with a leg shim.
The rung tenon and frame dowels were in need of being cleaned of glue and debris; the rung mortise and seat frame dowel holes needed to be cleaned as well.
The corner blocks were also cleaned of finish and glues.
Holes were filled with hard picks.
Hide glue was liberally applied to both tenon and mortise, above image three and four.
Hide glue was also applied into the seat tenon holes, shown image five above, and onto the seat tenons.
Tenons were all slipped into their appropriate holes or mortise, and clamped to cure on a level surface, left.
CHAIR 1
While it probably could have lasted another hundred years with this anomaly, we repaired it, shown above. We excised the area into a square form, created an insert, glued and trimmed it level with the frame.
FINISH
layered shellac and polymerized oil
mixed with oil-based asphaltum;
it was in surprisingly good condition.
There were a instances of drippings or
other debris, example shown left on
Chair 5, but no damage occurred
due to these drippings.
We proposed to clean and then wax the historic finish.
The new leg shim was shellacked to seal and protect it.
Shellac drippings were evident on two of the leg rungs.
Above, Chair 3 during cleaning.
down all the chairs with Naptha,
shown right decanted.
Naptha removed fats, waxes,
cosmetics and cleaning products.
A paper towel followed quickly to remove the dirt and debris from the finish.
What appeared to be white paint was present on several chairs, shown on
the Arm Chair, left, and was manually removed.
Above, the right-facing arm of the Armchair before finish work, image one.
The wax slurry was applied, image two, and removed, image three.
This mixture was brushed or wiped on and worked into the finish, shown above and right, and allowed to sit for a few minutes.
It was then wiped off, shown above.
UPHOLSTERY
Above, documentation of the original buildup as we excavated the seat from Chair 3. Historic leather removed, followed by several layers of cotton batting.
Final layer was needled horsehair.
show cover that had an appearance
very much like the original, which
had several shades of brown in
the finish. Left, a strip of the
original leather next to our
new leather.
This was cut to the rough dimensions, shown above, awaiting for the finished buildup of all the chair seats.
Above, the organic cotton batting fit to the six chair frames.
Mitchell discarded all but one layer of the original cotton batting.
one above, saving the original
needled horsehair on all the chairs.
Other changes in the upholstery
techniques are Mitchell added a layer
of organic cotton muslin as a topper
to the buildup (shown above image
two-four sitting on top of the leather).
The muslin was topped with a half-layer of organic cotton batting before upholstering the leather show cover; detail right.
Felt pads were placed on the bottoms of all the feet, above.
.
AFTER TREATMENT
Six chairs were completed and ready for delivery!
The five armless ladder-back chairs completed, above.
Chair 1, before and after, above and below.
CHAIR 1
Chair 2, before and after, above and below.
CHAIR 2
Chair 3, before and after, above and below.
CHAIR 3
Chair 4, before and after, above and below.
CHAIR 4
Chair 5, before and after, above and below.
CHAIR 5
Chair 6, Arm Chair, before and after, above and below.
ARM CHAIR, OR CHAIR 6
BEFORE AND AFTER LOOKING UNDERNEATH, ABOVE
ORIGINAL STAMP AND LABELS, ABOVE
Below, the Arm Chair flanked by two armless ladderbacks.
dkatiepowell @ aol.com / mitchellrpowell @ aol.com
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503.970.2509 / 541.531.2383
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Up until the upholstery, I understood this completely. What a marvelous process. I love how he added the shim to the leg. The chairs are beautiful. Thanks for keeping them for future generations to see.
I would love to own these chairs — they are surprisingly comfortable as well.