An Interesting Caned Chair, Part 1: The Construction

Warning - long post.  Chair junkies might like this one.

Back in May or June, I was given a broken-down chair and I'm finally getting around to documenting it.  It's a post and rung chair with a caned seat.  I'm not planning to build one, but at least I'll have documented its key dimensions and characteristics if I want to build something similar.

Front view

Side view

Rear view

View from above

Here's the basic story.  The undercarriage is assembled with a single stretcher connecting the front legs and a single stretcher connecting the back legs.  Two stretchers on each side connect a front leg to a back leg.  The back legs extend higher and become the frame for the backrest.  Two slats and a top rail connect the upper back legs. The seat is interesting: four pieces make up a frame, the back seat rail and side seat rails have round tenons that fit into mortises in the back legs.  The front seat rail was poorly attached to the side seat rails with butt joints glued and nailed.  The underside of the ends of the front seat rail had square mortises that fit over square tenons atop the front legs.  The caning is brittle and mostly intact, though not salvageable.

Front Legs

The front legs are about 16 1/2" long (plus tenon) and about 1 9/16" diameter, turned with a multiple bead detail in the center area.  Below that is a smooth taper down to dainty 11/16" ankles above 1" diameter, 1/2" tall feet.  Above the multiple beads is a cove and bead and a taper to the 1" diameter top.  The front legs have 0° splay and ~3° rake.  The wood might be maple.

Front leg detail

Back Legs

The back legs are about 33 3/4" long, turned to 1 1/2" diameter, with a taper near the bottom down to 1".  Above the seat there is a short section of multiple bead detail, then the legs become more rectangular in section, though the back facet is still rounded.  The legs taper to 1" wide and 1" thick at the top.  Starting about 6" above the seat, the legs are bent back and out.  Below the seat, the back legs have 0° splay and ~6° rake.  I suspect the wood is maple.

Upper portion of back legs

Stretchers

The front stretcher is 13 3/4" long (plus tenons) and about 1 1/4" diameter, tapering to 7/8" before the tenons.  Centered 8 1/2" above the floor, it is turned, though over time the back of that stretcher has been worn smooth, perhaps by young feet hooked over it.  It appears to be made from maple or beech.

Front stretcher

Rear aspect of front stretcher

The side and back stretchers are all 5/8" to 11/16" diameter, and appear to be oak.  The side stretchers are 12 3/4" (lower) and 12" (upper) long, plus tenons, and attached to the front leg 5 1/2" and 11" up from the floor.  At the back leg, the mortises are centered 5 3/4" and 11 1/4" up from the floor.  The rear stretcher is 11 1/2" long, centered 7 3/4" above the floor.

Seat Back

The back comprises the upper portion of the back legs, two slats and a top rail.  The lower slat is 3/8" thick, 1 1/16" wide and about 12 1/2" long (plus tenons).  The upper slat is 3/8" thick, 3 3/8" wide and 13 1/8" long (plus tenons).  The upper slat is also shaped with an upward curve.  It has a nice floral design drawn its front face.  Both slats are bent with about a 36" radius.  These might be poplar, though I've never heard of anyone bending poplar.

The slats

The top rail appears to be turned, then bent.  But I'm not sure about this.  The grain direction seems to indicate that is was made from a wider board, shaped to a curve and then rounded.  It is about 15 7/8" along it widest arc and about 1 1/2" diameter, tapering to 1 1/4" at the ends.  It looks like it is made of poplar.  It is attached to the legs with a glued and screwed half-lap joint.  The screws are 1 3/16" long slotted head screws with the slots poorly centered.

The joint of top rail to left rear leg

Old-looking slotted head screws

The Seat

The top of the seat is about 17 1/2" off the floor at front and 17 1/4" at the back.  It's 17 1/2" wide at front and 14 3/4" at back.  Front to back it is 13 1/4".  The seat frame is very interesting.  The front rail is 17 1/2" long by 1 1/2" wide and 3/4" thick.  The seat side rails are 11 1/8" long (plus tenon), 1 1/2" wide and 3/4" thick.  The front and side rails are of unknown wood.  The seat back rail is made of oak and is about 14" (plus tenons) x 1 1/16" x 13/16".

The seat frame

The front seat rail is connected to each side rail with two 3" long nails (and probably glue).  I would have thought to use at least a bridle joint, with the leg tenon extending through both pieces.  The nails were just to either side of the mortise that housed the leg tenon.

Bottom view of the connection of the front seat rail (with nails) to a side seat rail

At the rear of the side seat rails, an integral 5/8" diameter round tenon was shaped to fit into a mortise in the back leg.  The left side rail (shown two pics above) shows that tenon broken off.  The rear rail had round tenons shaped to fit into 5/8" mortises in the back legs.  The rear rail was in bad shape, having been broken and glued at least once.

Rear seat rail showing bad break and shaped ends leading to tenons

Rear rail tilted up on edge to see glue in the crack

Here's where it gets interesting.  The mortises in the rear legs for the rear seat rail and the side seat rails are at the same height, so the tenons intersect inside the leg.  Apparently, the rear seat rail was glued to the rear legs first, then the rear legs were mortised for the side rails.  The side rail tenons went through the rear rail tenons, obliterating most of them.

The mortises in a rear leg for the seat components

Rear seat rail (horizontal in pic) and side seat rail with tenon.
Note how the rear seat rail tenon (what's left of it) has been bored through.

The Caning

I'm not a caning expert (or even a novice), so can't be sure of the material used.  But hickory bark was and is commonly used for caned seats.  It looks like the caning was coated with a lacquer.

Top of seat - note damage to three of the front-to-back pieces near left side

Bottom of seat

The pattern seems to be a simple front to back wrap, followed by a side-to-side weave with an empty row between each row of cane.  When I took the caning apart, I could see that the side-to-side caning wrapped around the side seat rails once before continuing to the next weave.

The end of a piece of cane tucked under a weave

Cut away the caning to reveal every other wrap around the side seat rail
(the cut canes in this pic originally extended all the way across the seat underside)

I was surprised that there was no filling - I had thought that was normal procedure.
All I found were some large dust-bunnies.

Dimensions in inches.  Part lengths exclude tenons.

Part                    Qty    Length    Width    Thickness    Comments

Front Leg              2       16 1/2    1 9/16    1 9/16            

Rear Leg               2        33 3/4    1 1/2    1 1/2                

Front Stretcher     1        13 3/4     1 1/4    1 1/4               Tapers to 7/8 at legs.  Tenons 1" long.

Rear Stretcher      1        11 1/2        5/8+    5/8+              Tenons 1" long

Side Stretcher, Upper    2    12        5/8+    5/8+               Tenons 1" long

Side Stretcher, Lower    2    12 3/4    5/8+    5/8+            Tenons 1" long

Back Top Rail      1        15 5/8       1 1/2    1 1/2

Back Mid Slat      1        13 1/8        3 3/8    3/8                Tenons about 1/2 - 5/8" long

Back Low Slat     1         12 1/2        1 1/16    3/8              Tenons about 1/2 - 5/8" long

Seat Frame Front    1      17 1/2        1 1/2      3/4              

Seat Frame Side     2       11 1/8        1 1/2      3/4              Integral round tenon at back, ~ 5/8" long

Seat Frame Back    1       14              1 1/16     13/16

The chair parts laid out (seat frame still within the caning)

In a separate post, I'll outline some other interesting details.