My wife and I received a dining room set that has been in her family for a while. We only have 4 chairs and would like to find a couple more to add to the set. Can anyone help identifying these chairs and where we might find a couple more.

Thanks in advance.

Hi, nice set. The style of furniture you have shown us was very popular from the late 1800's up until the early 1900's. There were literally hundreds of furniture companies throughout the United States, that manufactured this type of furniture. Many pieces were sold through stores, catalogs, and even soap companies (Larkin). I was in a similar situation years ago. I used to try and buy individual T-back chairs, and save them up to put sets together.
Before I knew it, I had about 25 chairs. The only ones that matched were the ones that were bought together (auctions, etc. ). The same thing can be probably be said for your style. The variations of this style of chair is just about limitless.
Your best bet may be to have someone make a set of two, for you. With the 3-d carving machines on the market today, This chair can probably be reproduced. Being a family heirloom, this may be an alternative to searching endlessly, for an identical match. Thanks for sharing. Tim

Thanks for your response Tom. I never thought of actually having the chairs reproduced, but it is an interesting idea. What would that cost? Do you have any idea of a reputable chair maker that I would be able to contact about this? Also, what would the name of this style of chair? Again, thanks for your response.

Peter

Sorry Tim, I called you Tom in my last post.

Peter

I would refer to them as oak press back chairs. Some others may call them oak larkin press back chairs. As far as a chair maker, you may want to check furniture restoration, or furniture makers in your area. The internet will also be of some help. If you find a furniture maker outside of your area, you will have to ship one chair, so it can be used as a reference model. A lot of the individual pieces can be turned on a wood lathe. The press backs, seats, and the supports that attach the seat to the back will have to be made in another manner.
Either way you choose, you will have some time and cost involved.
A third option would be to buy a pair of press back chairs that don't match, and just include them in your set. I used to have little children in the house, and instead of worrying about the possibility of one chair out of an expensive set being destroyed(the thought of constantly finding replacements dissuaded me from having a perfect set), I simply had various styles of oak chairs around the table. I bought individual chairs at auctions for less than $20 each. The various chair styles around the table looked very chic, and I had one less thing to worry about. Thanks. Tim

Hello Peter V,
Welcome to these wonderful forums that you will find several folks to help you in many ways.
Tim, has given you some sound advise and the main thing is not just finding exact duplicates of these chairs as they were mass produced back when they were made. I remember that my grand parents had an identical set of them to the one you showed in your picture and as the years go by you will find them harder and harder to find.

My suggestion would be to locate a furniture builder who has the equipment to carve and then glue up the lamination of the various layers to make the parts. I have reproduced several of this style and they are very easy to do if you have the right tools as I do. The three D router carver is one that I have and as Tim mentioned they really aren't hard to duplicate.

There should be some furniture builders in your area who might do them for you.

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones

Thank you for your time and advice. I will try to find some woodworkers in my area to cost out duplicating the chairs. I also have done some searching for oak press back chairs and have found a bunch on the the web. I will keep you posted as to what we decide to do.

Peter

Hey Peter,
I am not sure but I think that you can get them from VanDykes.
www.vandykes.com

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones