This page features a variety of items for which we have woven a new cane seat.
We begin with a very old and unusual hand caned sofa. Although we have already removed the cane in the foreground panel in the photo to the right, you can pretty easily see the condition of the cane and why it needed our attention. The age of this item is clearly suggested by the deep grooves cut into the wood frame by by the cane after probably a couple centuries of use.
As you can see below left, we used a larger size of cane in our reweaving of this sofa. The cane we replaced was undersized for the holes and the spacing of the holes. We believe its life was shorter than it should have been because too small for the stresses placed on it. The grooves in the frame more closely matched the size we used as well.
An unusual feature of this sofa was that the cane was not bound off along the perimeter as is usually done. This dosen't weaken the seat but does give a different, more geometric look.
Note the wear pattern on the footrests along the front. Another indication of many years of consistent use.
This was a blind cane job. As is clear, we also colored the new cane to blend with the chair. You can see the original horsehair on the seat just peeking into the photo below.
It should be obvious which chair has the newly woven seat! We later colored it to match the other.
Our main reason for putting this photo in is to illustrate that the new seat is great, but look what a difference refurbishing also made! We simply cleaned, waxed and polished the chair to the left. Transforming! It now has life, warmth and a beautiful satiny glow. Something to keep in mind when you are looking at having some work done on a nineteenth century chair like this. You don't want to strip unless a last resort, but refurbishing can yield a very desirable result.
This is a mid-nineteenth century rocker possessing several acceptable names. The distinctive hip rests and low slung carriage identify it as a Lady's rocker, or as a nursing rocker or as a sewing rocker.
The cane was a way to keep a lady cool while she was engaging in activities like these which could add extra warmth.
This website features work we have done. When we rewove this rocker we weren't redoing a job we had done previously. The above illustration of a really horrible caning job should be a good contrast to the work we do which is illustrated below.
The interesting inlaid walnut on the crest of this rocker identifies the chair as probably 1860s or perhaps a bit one side or the other.
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To the left we show the condition these chairs were in when they arrived. Dull, faded, loose in the joints, a worn, dated upholstered pad over the seat. We reglued, refurbished and rewove the seats. We love it when projects turn out so dramatically improved.
The center front chair is as it came in. The other five chairs were rewoven. We usually like natural lighting for photos, but sometimes the flash really helps reveal details as in the photo to the right.