18th Century Ladderback

It was nice while it lasted. That much can be said about the 18th century ladder-back chair. It was a piece of furniture that took its world by storm while it was in use, in fact it was one of the most popular chairs in its time. This criterion makes one to wonder why this piece of furniture was so well acclaimed. This was due to the incomparable ease of construction, it has a simple and yet adorable design and most importantly it is very affordable, by this you can have a simply elegant piece of art at a very cheap rate.

Though it was used in those days, it still has an importance of a different kind these days; it has successfully won the heart of antique collectors. To them it has become a desirable piece of antique furniture.

The ladder-back chair is also known as a slate-back chair. It is called by this name because of the presence of horizontal slats across the back of the chair. This gives the back rest of this antique furniture the look of the rung of a ladder.

These slats are usually connected to the straight back posts with a mortise and tenon joint. The slats or ?rungs? are usually two to six in number. The design of the posts of this chair is in perpendicular position to each other. The posts usually are designed in a turned or rounded shape on a lathe. This antique furniture has a classic version which has a high back and a woven rush seat.

The most common type of wood used in those days to construct this antique piece of furniture was hard wood, this type of wood happen also to be the best type of wood that could be used for such elegant construction. The English version of the ladder-back chair was made from a different kind of wood entirely. It was made from ash, beech or oak.

In the 18th century ladder-back chairs were made in various shapes and designs. Armless ladder-back chairs were common sights, but surely there were some also that had arms. The designers usually made some too that could be used as rockers, there were also other that were not made in that form. But some of the ones that were not rockers could be converted later to rockers.

The ladder-back chair was usually finished with stains or paints; the common color of the finish was either red or black.

The ladder-back originated from the middle Ages in Europe. It came into the U.S. through the American colonists. It was generally accepted by all and sundry for various forms of usage. It is still in use even now in the modern world with various forms of variation.