Set of 6 Louis XV Style Oak Chairs

• 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  Oak as a furniture timber was superceded by walnut in the 17th century, and in the 18th century by mahogany,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.
• Drop in Seat - Mostly used on Regency upright chairs, a drop in (or "drop on") seat is an unsprung removable seat where the upholstery is attached to a wooden frame, which is held in place by the sides of the chair, and usually a wooden peg at the front of the chair. An inset upholstered seat is of the same construction, but it sits within a frame whose perimeter includes four sides of the chair.
  
  Because the upholstery frame was not very deep, the seats were relatively uncomfortable. In the mid 19th century coiled upholstery springs came into use and frame of the chair was used as the upholstery frame, making for a much more comfortable and responsive seat.
  
  This type of seat was known as an over-upholstered or over-stuffed seat.
• Turning - Any part of a piece of furniture that has been turned and shaped with chisels on a lathe. Turned sections include legs, columns, feet, finials, pedestals, stretchers, spindles etc. There have been many varieties and fashions over the centuries: baluster, melon, barley-sugar, bobbin, cotton-reel, rope-twist, and so on. Split turning implies a turned section that has been cut in half lengthwise and applied to a cabinet front as a false decorative support.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• chairs, sets of 6, style or period
  • French 171
  • ladder backs 35
• chairs, sets of 6, timber
  • all styles and timbers 737
  • oak 92