Vintage Thursday Thingie: Antique Deck Chair

This antique deck chair is from the 1920s. It is oak with a caned seat, back and leg rest. We purchased it in the late 1970s from an antique dealer in NYC and I don't know the name of the ocean liner it once belonged to or even if it ever saw the deck of an ocean liner!

Caned seating began in England in the 17th century and has been popular ever since. This chair is caned with the ever popular (and familiar) six way caning that forms a star like pattern. This chair is hand caned.

While researching for some photos of artifacts from the SS Titanic to add to my book review of Titantic survivor Lawrence Beesley's "Loss of the SS Titanic" (you can read the review here or just scroll down to my previous post) I found this photo of a deck chair recovered from the sea. You can see that the back and leg rest are wood slats and only the seat is rattan. The seat may have been recaned later- I have seen photos of pieces of caned seating recovered from the Titanic.Today, most caned chairs are "machine" caned-not sure how the actual caning is done but you can easily tell if your chair is hand or machine caned. All hand caned pieces have holes drilled in the wooden frame so that the caning can be individually woven through by hand with the pattern formed by which hole the caning is next woven into. Machine caned seats or seat backs are modular-there are no holes and you can see a bevel cut into the wooden frame around the edge of the caning covered by a band of caning. Both styles of caning look the same at first glance...so look closely! :)

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