this chair is sitting in my mothers basement and has been in her family for at least 80 years. the label is still on the bottom and it reads - The Kelly Comfort Chair.... J.A.Kelly and Brothers..... Clinton Iowa..... firts patent says - Oct11 1898 and the last patent is jan 15 1907. Reg.#38046.
my family is looking to find out what it is worth. It is in the mission style and my mother said her parents always called it the morris chair. It has leather seat and back with oak arms and frame.

Send me an email for all needed info on the Kelly Comfort Chair. Sight unseen, your chair is worth about $450. Usually the steel pins slotted into the reclining back wear down or through. There should be a spring and cylinder under the chair to enable the back to recline without other mechanism. The pull-out footrest was unique.

W. Conger,

You're replying to a message thats 2 years old - check the time stamp - 'pat' may be long gone. I like to think that this forum is for sharing information - it wouldn't survive otherwise, so instead of saying 'send me an email' why not just share the info? It's not like you supplied an email address anyway, or registered and have provided one in a profile.

I've never heard of the Kelly Comfort Chair, as I'm sure others haven't either, so why not post a couple pictures and tell us more.

Holy cow, that's an ornery reply, Mr. Moderator. Actually I sen't quite a bit of info re the Kelly Comfort Chair but it looks like my message was shortened. I'll send a few pictures. The Kelly Manufacturing Company was in Clinton Iowa and made many different kinds of furniture from the later 19C through the 30s and was finally bought out by what became the Ethan Allen Company. In its heyday it employed several hundred people. Among its most popular products was the Kelly Comfort Chair, a reclining chair with built-in footrest. I know about the company history because the owner and inventor Thomas Kelly was my grandfather. I retain original patents for the Comfort Chair and a sofa-bed. Maybe no one on your list has any interest in the chair, but I know there are many people who avidly seek them because they were so elegantly designed and widely used, even to this day. Other than willingness to provide information, I have no interest or incentive to buy or sell any of the Kelly products.

william, i got a bit of a chuckle from your response to stonecats' post. i felt the same way the first time he responded to something i wrote but he actually seems like a pretty good fellow and knows more than anybody should about a&c furniture. he did post a smile at the end of his post so he was just playing.
welcome to the forum.

It would be nice to see images of this Comfort Chair. How wonderful to have the family tie.

Fred

Tell me how to post images on this list and I'll do it.
William Conger w-conger@sbcglobal.net

there is a sticky at the top of the furniture forum "how to post pictures"
p.s. you have to register and become a member to post pics