Georgian Open Armchair with Carved Brass Inlay

• Inlay - Decorative patterns inserted into the main body of a piece of furniture, generally in wood of contrasting colour and grain, though brass, ivory, ebony, shell and sometimes horn have been used. Inlay may consist of a panel of well figured timber inset into a cabinet door front, geometric patterns, or complex and stylized designs of flowers, swags of foliage, fruits and other motifs. As a general rule, in pieces where the carcase is constructed in the solid, the inlay is relatively simple such as stringing, cross banding and herringbone banding. Where more elaborate and decorative work was required veneer was used. Inlay has been fashionable from at least the latter half of the 17th century, when a variety of elaborate forms were developed
• 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.
• George Iv - George IV (1762 ? 1830) was king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and king of Hanover from 1820, until his own death in 1830. From 1811 until his accession in 1820, he served as Prince Regent during his father's final mental illness.
  
  In English furniture design, his reign from 1811 to 1830 is known as the Regency period.
• 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.
• Beech - Beech, a pale coloured timber, is native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America and classified as a hardwood, although comparitively "soft" when compared with oak or ash. It has long been popular with with country craftsmen, particulary chair makers, as unlike ash it is suitable for turning.
• 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.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• chairs, singles - Georgian 550
• chairs, singles / pairs / threes, style or period - armchairs 1,767