Identifying the history of a pair of charming chairs

Q: My husband and I are curious about a chair that has been in his family for many years. As you can see from the photographs, it appears to have its original finish and the seat is original. Is the chair valuable? I would like to refinish it, but not if it will adversely affect the value.

A: Just one look at the photographs of this braced bow back Windsor armchair with a rush seat and we knew it was not an original from the late 18th or even early 19th century. We were also sure it was not 19th -entury at all.

Your e-mail was titled "Sikes Chair Company Windsor chair" and in one of the photos we saw the proof of this by the appearance of a label that read "Sikes Chair Company, Buffalo Branch (we think) Buffalo, New York."

Samuel D. Sikes founded a furniture-making company on Clinton Street in Buffalo in 1859. Sikes produced all sorts of chairs, from oak press backs and a variety of Windsor-type chairs to swivel office chairs, rocking chairs and Morris-style chairs in the Arts and Crafts mode. This last type of chair is generally the most desired of Sikes' products on today's market and has brought as much as $700 at auction. Sikes also produced some non-chair items such as tables.

Except for the back braces, the chair in today's question might be called a "sack back" Windsor. Odd name, and we have seen the explanation that it was so called because a sack could be placed over the spindles that make up the back to keep the cold draft from blowing through during the winter. Colorful, interesting, but doubtful in our opinion.

A single Sikes high style Windsor armchair with a pierced central back-splat in the English style made from walnut with graceful turnings can sell at auction for as much as $850, but chairs such as the one in today's question bring much less. The last one we found had an auction estimate of $100 to $200 and failed to sell.

Your chair is probably from the 1920s or perhaps a tad earlier. But unless it is in need of repair, it should not be touched. A good clean and polish should do the trick; refinishing it would lower the value.

A: The first time we saw this letter it was titled "Weird Chair?" We agree, it is a weird chair, but we love weird things, and we love them even more if they have a bit of mystery about them.

We believe this piece actually started out as two very different pieces of furniture — an organ stool and a hall chair. At some point, their owner had a need to put the two together to create an organ stool with a high back for someone named Scott, whose name is written on the lower portion of the back.

Our ancestors tended to be thrifty people. Money was a little less available, and going to the store could be something done infrequently and might require some travel. As a result, it is not all that unusual for a collector to find a dressing table converted into a desk or a broken off glass compote base repurposed with the addition of a pin cushion on top. Old wooden fruit crates could be converted into both furniture and children's toys. Instead of being discarded, chairs were fitted with new legs; tables got new tops; boxes received new lids, sides or bottoms — we could go on and on.

Looking at the front of the chair we were a bit flummoxed, but when we saw the photograph of the back and the heavy iron bar that secured the back to the stool we understood almost immediately. The organ stool base is rather pedestrian and not in the least bit rare, but the addition of the back with its Pennsylvania German-style painted decoration of welcoming pineapples and floral designs turned this hybrid into something special.

This piece is quirky and probably one of a kind. How old is it? Well, the chair back is probably third quarter of the 19th century, while the stool is late fourth quarter — probably circa 1895 to 1900 or so. They were probably melded together sometime between the two world wars. We want to mention that during World War II the British Ministry of Information issued a pamphlet titled "Make-Do and Mend" to guide people into doing this sort of thing.

Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson have written a number of books on antiques.