Very smart 18th/ early 19th century South Wales oak open armchair, with traces of original paint to the outside of the arm supports. Reeded vertical splats typical of the Sheraton style of Glamorgan/ Carmarthenshire. This one picked up from a very nice chap in Carmarthen. High grain prices due to foreign wars at the end of the 18th century led to relative prosperity for farmers in South Wales, and a penchant for the English tastes. In 1805, one Theophilus Jones wrote ‘the connexions and intercourse however of the two countries are now so numerous and so intimate, and the interests of both are so much blended, that in a short time the distinction of country will be thought of no more’.
- Luke Miller, Late Georgian Wooden-Bottomed Chairs in South Wales, Regional Furniture journal, 1991.
