Yew Wood Windsor Chair with Curved Back and Spindles

• Splat - The central back support between the top rail and the seat in chairs and couches. They may take a variety of forms, and run either horizontally or vertically.
• Spindles - Short turned pieces, used as stretchers or back supports mainly in cottage chairs, couches and day beds. Turned shelf supports and the railings used in the backs and arms of day beds during the late 19th century are also referred to as spindles. Until the coming of the industrial age, spindles, like all turned pieces, were made by hand, and should show some slight variation. With the introduction of the factory lathe, spindles and turned legs became quite uniform and standard.
• Turning - Any part of a piece of furniture that has been turned and shaped with chisels on a lathe. Turned sections include legs, columns, feet, finials, pedestals, stretchers, spindles etc. There have been many varieties and fashions over the centuries: baluster, melon, barley-sugar, bobbin, cotton-reel, rope-twist, and so on. Split turning implies a turned section that has been cut in half lengthwise and applied to a cabinet front as a false decorative support.
• Turned Legs - are legs which have been turned on a lathe. In use from the 16th century, turned legs on tables, chairs and cabinets became more frequent until, by the 1830s, the Georgian square or tapered leg was rarely found except in country pieces.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• chairs, singles / pairs / threes, style or period
  • Victorian, other styles 1,208
  • Windsor 161