Keep It or Skip it?

[denmar]

Hi,

This chair was discovered in the garden of my late sister-in-law, we were clearing the house and I was for taking it to the skip or leaving it, my friend then said it looks like a regency style wrought iron strapwork chair c 19th century.  Is he right? if so is it worth anything, I want to know because at the moment it is in my garden which is obviously not secure, but if its worthless then I would just scrap it.  Any help would be appreciated.

[Michelle Staley]

It is a nice looking metal lawn chair but as far as age I cannot determine that with the photo.

Look for phillips head screws which did not come into use until around the 1930. Also early metal pieces were crafted from iron and will show a lot of rust, your chair looks to be well painted but you can feel around on it and see if you can feel any areas that might have been rusted and sanded down. Overall construction does it look old or new, is it heavy or lightweight?

Your chair does not look to be 100's of years old.... at least from the photo. I would venture to say that it was crafted within the last 40 or 50 years.

Personally I would keep it and buy a cushion to put on the seat but then again I have a wide assortment of patio and garden chairs.

Maybe someone else on this forum has a different insight.

[denmar]

Hi Michelle,

Thanks for the reply, the chair is very heavy and does have a lot of rust on it, I'm guessing it's been painted fairly recently but can't say when.  There are no screws on the chair just rivets, don't know if that helps I've got some more photos if you want to see them.

[Michelle Staley]

Closeups of joints help a lot as do a couple of closeups of the chair.

If you can't post them here due to size you might try http://www.flickr.com/ or another free photo sharing site.

[soodeeqw]

If you in my neck of the wood, I could sell that chair for $20 or more, the garden is exactly where it belongs, plant a vine, such as grapes or morning glories and let it grow, trim as you want to. I am in MN by the way!