Popular Woodworking 2008-12 № 173, страница 12

V

- Arts & Mysteries

BY ADAM CHEKUBINI

18th-century Chairmaking

Building a Philadelphia Chippendale chair - part 2

I his is part two in my series of what will probably be several articles detailing the construction of a formal Philadelphia Chippendale chair. In the last article, I built up the structure of the chair's back, but did none of the shaping or carving. It would be nice to simply document the construction as I build it. But I'd like to have an article on carving, not little bits of carving in every article. Moreover, I'm attempting to show what I think the building process really looked like in the period. I believe Philadelphia's linest chairs were carved by professional carvers in the 18th century. Some of the shapingand carving would have been done "in-house" in the chairmaker's or cabinetmaker's shop. I'm going to attempt in a future article to show where I feel the work split was. In this article, I'm going to build up the chair's front and attach it to the back. My focus will be on structure and joinery.

Understanding the Structure

At first glance, the structure of this chair is fairly simple, Each of the four seat rails attaches to its adjoining legs with mortise-and-tenon joints. The rearseat rail is relatively easy. You have to cut angled shoulders. The front seat rail is completely square. No problem there. The challenge is cuttingthe side seal rails. The trapezoidal shape of the seat means angled shoulders. But the side seat rails are further complicated by the difference between the vertical front legs and angled rear legs. Asa result, t he side seat railsare essent ially twisted along their length. The combination of the angles and the twist make this part fairly tricky to build.

I 've seen different craftsmen wrestle with t his and attempt to find more elegant solutions. Some try to keep the mortises square with the back legs and angle t he side rails" tenons. This is nothing new. If you look at Queen Anne

Beginning stages. i\'o I haven't switched to Jansu-inspired studio furniture. I his really is the beginnings ota Philadelphia Chippendale chair. If it weren't for the discrete, strategically laid out tenons between the splat and the crest rail (sec my article in November 2008. issue # 172), this basic chair form could assume any of a wide variety of styles. In this article, I complete the basic structure and find a few new challenges to test my abilities.

24 ■ Popular Woodworking December 2008

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