About Antique Queen Anne Chairs

The Queen Anne style of chair making entered the colonial world in the mid 1700s shortly after the real Queen Anne occupied her English throne in 1702. The Queen Anne style became the most popular and sought after chair design of the time, until the Chippendale style caught the interests of woodcrafters and chair makers and eventually replaced it. During its heyday, however, the Queen Anne chair was considered a fashion statement. In its infancy, it was made of walnut wood, but through the years other types of wood were used.

When the Chippendale style entered the scene, however, it didn't entail that the Queen Anne style was already totally out of fashion. This is probably because the Queen Anne chair style introduced a design that is new to the chair industry. It was curved, not straight.

Most of the chair designs that preceded it had straight backs, but the Queen Anne deviated from the norm and gave its top rail a yoke shape and carved its back splat in the shape of a vase, in a design that was referred to as 'fiddle back'. Another unique introduction of the Queen Anne is the location of the back splat, which was placed on the rail of the seat itself, not on the cross rail on top.

Other defining characteristics of the Queen Anne are the cabrioles, or the curved front legs, and the rounded or clubbed feet.

In determining the value of antique chairs, its make and design are very important. Thus, if you own a Queen Anne, your chair is considered top of the line. In addition, if your particular Queen Anne has a nice history to it, that is, one of the royals had actually used it, then all the more will its value rise. When appraising antique furniture, factors like age, maker and make, and history are very important and give plus points to its value.

In the history of antique chairs, while the Chippendale style slowly supplanted it, the luster and strength of Queen Anne chairs never diminished. Styles may have changed and designs evolved, but the intrinsic worth of a Queen Anne antique chair will never fade. As the years go by, its worth will even go up. So if you're thinking about selling your Queen Anne now, you might want to hold on for years more – especially if you don't really need to sell that badly.

Antique chairs and other types of furniture are testaments to the passing of time and the evolution of man. The fact that they have weathered so many years merits them a whole lot of respect.

Queen Anne antique chairs, in particular, deserve the same kind of esteem as the Hitchcock chair or the Chippendale chair. In fact, going back to its history, the Queen Anne represented a major breakthrough in chair making, thus, making its value slightly higher than its contemporaries.

So next time you dismiss that old chair in your living room as nothing, you'd better think again. You never know, you might be sitting in one of the oldest chairs ever created.