There may not be a better known or more duplicated wooden chair in the world than the Windsor. The Windsor is well recognized for its bentwood back frame and its pegged legs going directly in to its wooden seat. The Windsor is differentiated from other styles of chairs because of this styling that normally are framed with an apron. 

Somewhere around the beginning of the 18th century, not surprisingly around Windsor Castle in England, this chair was conceived. Although it was the custom that chairs were crafted by cabinetmakers, this chair seems to have been crafted by turners and wheelwrights. This may indeed explain the spoke-like design of the Windsor. 

The chair in fashion at the time was the fine Queen Anne and it is likely the wheelwrights tried to fashion a chair but because of more rustic tools and skills they used the round backs and splats of the Queen Anne but incidentally created the Windsor. The English Windsor is in fact well known for its pierced slatted back. A Windsor chairs legs are invariably splayed outward and some even had the fancier cabriole leg rather than the turned. Throughout the 19th century the legs stuck into wood instead of framed with an apron. In the U.S. especially, the style began to be the front two legs only were joined in this way.  

It took no time at all for the Windsor to make its way to the New World; first appearing in Philadelphia after 1725 and within a half a century they were the most popular chair in use. The lightweight Windsor had everything a good chair required – strength, beauty, easy to construct, and highly comfortable. The variations they were created in were various and included fan, hoop, comb back, and bow back.

The chairs were usually marriages of different woods; each known for its strengths in the area it was chosen for. The turned parts worked best with maples, oaks, ash, birch or beech. The seats, shaped in a saddle were easier to carve out in pine and birch, or in England elm. The bentwood frames were best suited for birch, beech, hickory or ash. An interesting note about the recognizable saddle seat design – if you find one with a flat seat, especially with tack marks, authorities believe these were originally upholstered.

Today Amish craftsman bring sturdy and exceptionally handsome and functional Windsor chairs to grace any room in your home of office. Built from the finest American hardwoods and stained in your choice of colors, these chairs can be an heirloom treasured for generations.   

A portico is a porch or walkway with a roof supported by columns, often leading to the entrance of a building. George Washington added a full length portico to Mount Vernon in the late 1700’s. It was a 94 foot piazza, a term quite commonly used in that era. In fact a piazza originally was an Italian design for a public square with room for pedestrians.

The Washington family did not have the availability of Amish crafted patio furniture but they did furnish their outdoor patio room with thirty Windsor chairs. Painted Windsor chairs where often used as outdoor patio furniture. In true Grecian style the Washingtons took tea outdoors.

Nowhere was the porch made as famous as in the South. Southern plantation home builders included massive wrap around porches that enjoyed the cool of the evening on a sweltering Southern night.

By the mid-1800’s porches on any size American home was common place. Large eighteenth century British homes had always had terraces to view their gardens from but soon they fell into the American porch fashion. Terraces were uncovered and often the garden held a gazebo for resting and enjoying the flora and fauna. Since gazebos were for the rich the idea of adding a porch to the home allowed even the commoner to enjoy the garden.

More United States presidents than George Washington are famous for their use of the porch. William McKinley ran for office from what appeared to be his front porch in his same named “front porch campaign”.

Due to poor health Wallace Nutting retired from the pulpit at age forty-three. It was a loss to the ministry but a gain to the art of photography and the reproduction of high end antique furniture. Dr. Nutting moved to a large house in Framingham, MA where he started purchasing historic structures that he wanted to use as backdrops for his photography. Nutting would restore the homes and then decorate them with period furnishings. His collection included American antiques, along with pieces from the 17th century including a carved 1685 Sunflower chest in oak, pine, and maple which he found in Wethersfield, CT, 18th century pieces and a huge collection of chests of drawers, Windsor chairs, cupboards, boxes, bookcases, cabinets, and more.

Along with the home furniture he also collects home furnishings. He collected over 600 period domestic utensils made of wood, pewter, and wrought iron. By 1928, Nutting had written his book “Furniture Treasury” illustrated with pictures of his and others collections. This is credited as the first widely circulated reference book on American antiques. In fact, he lists his first book published as “Windsor Chairs, 1917″. His rarest publication was Old New England Pictures, copyrighted 1913.

In 1917, Wallace Nutting opened a furniture factory in Saugus, MA. This factory was created to make reproductions of his antiques collection. Nutting chose the Windsor chair as his pilot offering, pricing them at a hefty premium, and sold them by the thousands. Nutting’s desire in recreating antiques in reproduction furniture was to “produce the best forms, put together in the finest manner,..”, and “…to make correct pieces of their period available.” Although Nutting says he lost money in the furniture venture it is worth noting that he was so correct in the old manner of furniture craftsmanship that on occasion unscrupulous people would distress his furniture, selling it as ‘period’ for a hundred times the purchase price. In the early days the company’s paper tag would either fall off or be intentionally removed.

In 1922 he sold his empire of photography and furniture and retired. The new owners used the Wallace Nutting name as a brand but after only two years of low quality and the destruction of his reputation and name Wallace Nutting exercised his rights to buy it back. To differentiate his product from theirs Wallace Nutting burned his name, “in plain capitals” into all the furniture.