AFA Summer 2018

Antiques & Fine Art 117 2018 Fig. 2: Easy chair, England, 1750-1760. Mahogany, beech, deal; linen, iron tacks, hair and straw stuffing, and wool fragments. Gift of Edward T. Lacy (1986-267). The original upholstery on this easy chair includes the stuffed roll on the wing crest that provides the softly rounded profile to the upholstery foundation. Fig. 3: Back stool, England, ca. 1765. Walnut, oak; linen, iron tacks, hair stuffing, and silk threads. Museum purchase (1982-188). Stitching through a stuffed roll creates a more rigid edge. This example has come loose from the front seat rail of the chair. Fig. 4: Upholstery conservator Leroy Graves stitches a web-raised edge on the seat of a reproduction back stool. The use of webbing along the edge combined with an integral stitched roll creates an angular, boxy, rigid edge for the upholstered seat. Fig. 5: Armchair, Norfolk, Va., 1790–1810. Mahogany and ash. Gift of the Sealantic Fund (1988-390, 1). Modern brass nails partially inserted into the original holes show the box- and-swag decorative pattern used on the seat rails of this armchair. wooden blocks and peaks positioned at the corners to support the profile shape, and the quilting or tufting that helped to keep the loose stuffing in place while also adding a decorative effect. Additional techniques like raised stitched pads could be used where wooden blocks and peaks were not in evidence. Tapes, welting, fringe, tassels and decorative nails rounded out the upholsterer’s decorative tools. When all soft materials are missing from a seating frame the only evidence of what they were and what foundation element they created includes nail holes, corrosion residue in the holes, parts of nails, impressions from materials or tacks, and possibly threads or larger bits of fluff left under a nail or in a hole. Clusters of nail holes on top of the seat rails might indicate where webbing strips were nailed; an uneven row of nail holes across the upper half of a rail might suggest the attachment of the linen used in a stuffed or stitched roll; decorative patterns or rows of holes might indicate the use of brass nails (Fig. 5). When much of the original upholstery survives on a piece like the circa-1820 Baltimore painted couch (Fig. 6), it is possible to detect upholstery changes at the macro level. The couch survived with all of its foundation, much of its original