Antique Windsor Chair with Saddle Seat by Atkinson & Co

• Oak - Native to Europe and England, oak has been used for joinery, furniture and building since the beginning of the medieval civilisation. It is a pale yellow in colour when freshly cut and darkens with age to a mid brown colour.
  
  Oak as a furniture timber was superceded by walnut in the 17th century, and in the 18th century by mahogany,
  
  Semi-fossilised bog oak is black in colour, and is found in peat bogs where the trees have fallen and been preserved from decay by the bog. It is used for jewellery and small carved trinkets.
  
  Pollard oak is taken from an oak that has been regularly pollarded, that is the upper branches have been removed at the top of the trunk, result that new branches would appear, and over time the top would become ball-like. . When harvested and sawn, the timber displays a continuous surface of knotty circles. The timber was scarce and expensive and was used in more expensive pieces of furniture in the Regency and Victorian periods.
• Saddle Seat - A saddle seat is a chair with a solid wooden seat, with two shallow depressions separated by a slight central ridge, suggestive of the shape of a saddle. However the term has been applied by designers and auction cataloguers to a wide range of seat shapes.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• chairs, singles / pairs / threes, style or period
  • Victorian, other styles 1,179
  • Windsor 155
• chairs, singles / pairs / threes, timber - oak 488