1881 Furniture Chair Back Designs

Below are 12 illustrations of various chair back designs from 1881, as included is the brief description from the original source.

ORIGINAL SKETCHES FOR CHAIR.BACKS.
IT has been well observed that a slavish imitation of antique styles, probably unsuited in some of their solid qualities to the lighter and more variable tone of modern society, is not desirable. This remark applies with special force to chairs, for, without being disposed to dispute the merits of many a fine old specimen that has been handed down to us from the days of Chippendale and Sheraton, there can be no doubt that in m.iny particulars such seats are not suited to exact reproduction in the nineteenth century. That novel ideas may, however, be evolved from the old JBateriftl is forcibly illustrated by the dozen Chair-backs delineated on one of our Separate Hates. They are not by any means all of an equal degree of merit, and yet there is, perhaps, not one of them but may be turned to useful account by the cabinet-maker of our own day. There is, indeed, ample room for improvement in this particular direction, for too much of a family likeness is apparent in many modern chairs. The designs in question are from the pencil of Mr. A. Weatberstone.