I recently got a chair job that really was built using old school. The edge roll was cut from wood. The chair must be over 70 or 75 years old but the wood edge roll was reused.
This is a chair where legs and arm are all exposed wood. Some wood is flat sawed and the
front legs are lathe turned. The front side to side rung is exposed and fancy sawing. The seat springs were three bar springs with 3 springs per. No springs in the upholstered backrest, just webbing, burlap, and padding then covered with muslin before upholstery fabric is attached.
There is still some older stuff coming in but not like several years ago. The wood in the older stuff is attractive and overall quality of that furniture is strong. I kinda like the older furniture with wood displayed - especially in the quality woods such as walnut, cherry, and mahogny, there are other nice woods also.
Doyle
I go to our arts museum every once in awhile. I enjoy looking at the chairs from centuries ago. The craftsmanship was awesome and I can only imagine the socio economic discrepancy between the guy making the chair and the guy buying the chair. Hey, now that I think about it, that's not too different than it is today. :)
gene
Those are my favorite chairs. Whenever I see one it reminds me of my Grandpa sitting in his chair reading. My Grandparents had matching chairs and while they were all upholstered they had wooden fluted ( they look like claws that curved down ) on the ends of each arm rest. They had wooden trim exposed along the bottom in the front as well.
I wished those styles would come back.
Chris