As if I wasn’t already behind on my projects, I picked up a chair today for $5. I don’t know anything about identifying chair styles or age. Obviously that square of wood nailed to the top of the seat isn’t original. Maybe it used to have a drop in seat or was a rush seat?

@jabel Weird. Usually the edges aren't that wide for rush seats, and the braces on the side posts would get in the way, wouldn't they? but there doesn't seem to be a lip to hold anything else (and the wide edges would be abnormal there too). Maybe it was a commode chair! All you need is an antique chamber pot and you're set.

@jabel It's a press back chair (said the antique furniture aficionado), which were mass produced in the late 19th c. and early 20th c. Is it oak? Oak was popular. I don't think it was a rush seat because the ones I have don't have so much extra wood around the seat; that would have been a waste of wood and money. More probably a caned seat originally, something like these. (edited to add, I have chairs with rush seats but not pressback chairs)

@dwalbert 😸That would be one way to repurpose it! But commode chairs tended not to have lots of stretchers around the bottom legs, because you want to be able to pull the pot in and out. Also the holes in the commode seat were round; not dissimilar from a modern toilet. @jabel

@annahavron Yeah, and the ones I’ve seen were at least partially enclosed underneath for a modicum of discretion (or to better avoid accidental spillage). I wasn’t serious.

@annahavron @dwalbert Yes, Anna, some folks on a Facebook group have the same conclusions as you—a pressback chair, probably with a cane seat. And I do think you’re both right that it wasn’t a rush seat because of the width of the edges. The interesting question now is what to do with the seat. Some people have recommended replacement seats like these but that’s a bit more than I want to spend. There’s also the possibility of putting new cane there.

@annahavron @dwalbert Yeah, sure enough there was a dado under that nailed piece with tiny bits of a cane seat

@dwalbert oh dear, text is so ambiguous! i knew you were joking; then I started thinking out loud about why it was one but not the other.

@dwalbert I have connections with the local Amish and they have a guy who does it. I plan to clean up the chair a bit and have him take a look at it.

@dwalbert my wife and I used to do chair caning (both weaving and also pressing in manufactured sheets of cane. We were poor college kids and appreciated the modest(!!) extra income.

@dwalbert @jabel 25 years ago when I checked into the cost of caning a chair, the caner said it would be a dollar a hole. as I had a set of six, I opted to visit an upholsterer instead. Much smaller holes with caning than on commode chairs, of course…

@annahavron No worries! I was thinking that I should have been clearer: commode chairs are kind of a running private joke of mine, but how is anyone on MB going to know that? And you were right, of course, it's all wrong for a commode chair.

@dwalbert you can’t fit a round peg into a… oh never mind 😸😸😸

@jabel Oh, excellent. ("Does anybody still do that?" was, coming from me, a ludicrous question.)

@annahavron @jabel Ha, yes. Upholstering a slip seat would be much simpler...

@jabel aha!

@annahavron Indeed! :)

@ronkjeffries I tried weaving rush once to repair some chairs and hated it so much I decided I'd rather sit on the floor, so I respect your weaving abilities! In the end I made slip seats and upholstered them.

@annahavron Dollar a hole! Whew. Thankfully the Amish around here tend to charge far less for goods and services than their English neighbors.