Sitting pretty (From The Oxford Times)

Sitting pretty

3:26pm Friday 21st July 2006 in Oxfordshire Homes and Interiors

Lifestyles are constantly evolving and, as we ease into the 21st century, we sit around our dining tables for longer than any previous generation. Dining is the new entertaining. Dining has moved away from the dining room and into the living space' so it is important to get it right when it comes to choosing dining chairs.

In Woodstock, you can find more chairs than probably anywhere else in England with two internationally-renowned chair specialists: Allan James of The Chair Set Antiques, who is based at Antiques of Woodstock, in Market Place, and Chris Baylis of the Real Wood Furniture Company in Oxford Street.

Chairs have been submitted to the mercurial trends of fashion and society since the earliest days of Greek and Roman civilisations. Furniture designers have drawn inspiration from past ages modifying forms and motifs along the way.

Until the 17th century, the chair was a status symbol indicating birth and rank; the master and mistress would be seated on chairs whilst the humbler members of the household had to make do with stools. Similar hierarchical seating arrangements followed in the Church. However, by the 18th century, the chair served every echelon of society and chairs were designed to suit many characters and activities, not just dining: Windsor chairs, cock fighting chairs, chairs for gout sufferers and chairs for wet nurses. By this time, dining chairs usually had upholstered or caned seats with wooden backs.

Those with arms were called arm or elbow chairs, more usually known as carvers today. Uprights were often arranged along the walls of a room when not in use, thus also referred to as side chairs.

Allan James started to specialise in chairs after many years working as a general antiques dealer in Petworth, West Sussex.

Following the battle of Trafalgar in 1805, chairs incorporated naval motifs, twisted rope backs and sabre legs, and are often referred to as ‘Trafalgars’.

"A client of mine was looking for a set of chairs to go with a circular William IV dining table," Allan recalled. "I discovered that many dealers had two, sometimes three, sets of dining chairs, but very few stocked more than that".

For the next two years Allan scoured the country, buying up antique dining chairs from pairs to sets of eight, ten and more.

From the mid-1990s The Chair Set Antiques was based in Richmond, Surrey, but demand soon outstripped available space and, in 2001, Allan moved to larger premises in Woodstock.

At Antiques of Woodstock in Market Place, The Chair Set holds more than 30 sets of antique dining chairs, wing chairs and dining tables as well as a wide range of other fine antique furniture dating from the early 1700s to the present day. More sets of dining chairs are stored in a barn and The Chair Set also offers an antique chair search service.

Allan is passionate about his subject "I love the proportions of classical furniture. For me the apotheosis was the Regency period. Regency chairs are timeless in appeal.

"Broadly from 1805-1830, Regency chairs are extremely elegant, many based on the work of Thomas Sheraton, whose work united two centuries, and mainly produced between 1780 and 1810.

Following the battle of Trafalgar in 1805, chairs incorporated naval motifs, twisted rope backs and sabre legs, and are often referred to as Trafalgars'.

Allan advises that if you wish to invest in a set of antique dining chairs and dining table that you buy your chairs first and find the table afterwards, as "a good-looking table is much easier to come by than a complete set of chairs."

He added: "At the moment, Regency and William IV chairs are very sought after, as their simple, classic, good looks fit in with today's interiors."

Chris Baylis is an acknowledged expert in the field of antique country dining chairs and contributed much research that helped leading academic Dr Bill Cotton to create The English Regional Chair, published by the Antique Dealers Club.

Chris started as a runner' in the late 1970s working for another dealer and spent much of his time seeking to buy chairs of various styles that could be matched into sets, restored, and then offered back to the trade. By the late 1980s he had set up his own business, Chris Baylis Country Chairs which at one point had more than 1,000 chairs in stock and was supplying many of the best-known antique dealers with sets of country chairs and fine individual armchairs.

In the early 1990s, with sets of antique country chairs becoming harder to find, Chris decided to draw on his many contacts and seek out craftsmen who were able to make new chairs to his specifications.

Initially rush-seated spindle and ladder-back chairs and hoop-back Windsor chairs of various styles were offered with very encouraging take up. In 1996 Chris opened the doors of The Real Wood Furniture Company to a retail audience, expanding his range to include a range of country tables, dressers, and so on.

In 2000, Chris moved to large premises just 250-yards up the road in Woodstock, which gave him the opportunity to extend the enormous range of chairs his company now makes and displays in 14 stunning showrooms.

Over 30 different styles are on offer, including some contemporary designs evolved from Chris's love of simple early Chinese furniture as well as sets of antique chairs and good individual armchairs.

Chris said: "It is important to choose furniture that sits comfortably together and this holds especially true when choosing chairs to go round your table. The heritage and weight' of your table and chairs should be similar and comfort is vital as we like to sit for long periods around our dining tables these days".

With this duo of hair purveyors meeting all your seating needs, it is easy to see why Woodstock has become the chair centre of England'.