According to notes written on the back of a photograph in approximately 1986 by Sally Lou Fitzhugh discovered in the lock box, the cane parlor chairs were a wedding present given to John I French, who married Louisa May Shelkett 25 May 1884. We do not know who gifted the chairs to him.

We believe originally there were five cane chairs. In the 1980s two chairs were located in Uncle John’s room. By 2004, four chairs had been moved to the dining room table. One of these four chairs was broken and thrown out. Jenny Smith found part of a fifth chair inside the buffet in 2023, but that chair could not be found. She moved the chairs to the front porch.

Known Repairs

Three chairs were recaned in about 2019 by Elizabeth Gaspar’s mother. (Elizabeth/Liz was one of Sally Lou Fitzhugh’s caregivers.) The chairs had been wobbly for years, so Jenny Smith glued and tightened joints and treated the surfaces with RestorAFinish in March 2023.

Style

These chairs date from the late Victorian period. They are a simplified, less expensive version of the popular, more ornate Eastlake style chairs, like this one:

The Eastlake movement is named after designer Charles Eastlake who pioneered the style. Eastlake furniture featured “geometric ornaments, spindles, low relief carvings, and incised lines [that] were designed to be affordable and easy to clean” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastlake_movement).