Alfred Regnery
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Windsor Rocker
Continuous arm rocking chair made from solid walnut. The “continuous arm” name comes from the one piece arm, steam bent and fitted into the thirteen spindles. This is a copy of a chair made in New York about 1780 and designed to appear to defy gravity.
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Moon Armchair
Made of cherry with walnut arms. Designed by Thomas Jefferson for his own use, he had several made by the Moon family chair shop in Bucks County, Pa and delivered to Monticello by horse and wagon.
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Double Bowed Windsor Birdcage Armchair
Made of cherry, maple and oak and finished ih black milk paint with gold ornamentation. Thomas Jefferson had chairs like this made in about 1800 for the entrance hall at Monticello; several are still there.
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George III Low Back Windsor Chair
With cabriole legs and ball and claw feet. The original was made in England by an unknown maker about 1770 (and is for sale in a high-end antique shop in Tennessee for $19,500), mine is made from solid walnut and finished with boiled linseed oil, shellac and beeswax.
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Philadelphia High Back Windsor with Cabriole Legs
Unusual in Windsors and more typically English than American. This is a copy of a chair made about 1740 in Philadelphia, now displayed at the Art Institute of Chicago.
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Ambrosia Maple Rockier with Walnut Back Slats
Inspired by mid twentieth century Lebanese immigrant craftsman Sam Maloof who set up shop in California in the 1950s; copying his chairs is now la pièce de résistance among amateur woodworkers.
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Designed by the Artist
Cherry and walnut chair of my own design. Perhaps it will be famous in its own right, someday.
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Chippendale Cherry Armchair
With ball and claw feet and carved acanthus leaves, copy of a 1750s chair, of which many were made in both America and England. Thomas Chippendale was a woodworker in London, who designed furniture in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles and published a book of his designs in 1760 which is still in print.
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High Back Cherry Comb Back Windsor
With carved “ears” on the crest. These were made in Philadelphia and New York by the thousands during the last 40 years of the 18th century and were one of the mainstays at Constitution Hall during the Constitutional Convention in 1787, most of which were used by the British for firewood during the War of 1812.
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High Back Walnut Comb-back Windsor
Copy of a Philadelphia chair made about 1765, with three piece sawed arm, shield- shaped seat, turned arm supports and carved knuckles. This chair is on permanent display in the cabin of Rappahannock’s own John Bourgeois.
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George III “Gothic” Windsor Chair
Copy of one made in the Thames Valley about 1740. Yew was the favored wood for these chairs, which is now unavailable so mine is made of elm, maple, oak and ash and finished with boiled linseed oil. Also known as a Strawberry Hill chair, it was made for the neo-Gothic mansion by the same name built In Twickenham, London for Horace Walpole in the 1730s who ordered furniture to match the style of the house. A pair of originals, owned by the Rockefeller family, was sold at Christies in 2018 for $336,500. Gothics are considered the most exquisite and finest design of all Windsor chairs, and the rarest of all the Windsor models.
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Pair of Walnut Queen Anne Arm Chairs
The set also includes six matching side chairs). The Queen Anne period stretched from about 1720 to 1750, and the style included chests, tables, highboys and, of course, chairs. These were among the first chairs that I made, and were a learning exercise as much as budding creativity.
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I am a retired lawyer and book publisher; woodworking has been a hobby since childhood. I made many chests, tables, dressers, a couple of lowboys and other pieces, but graduated to chairs about 20 years ago. The inspiration was my grandfather, a distinguished Philadelphia Quaker of the old school who often sat, in his three-piece suit with a gold watch chain stretched across his ample middle, at his desk in an old sack-backed Windsor chair. I always admired that chair, and felt blessed when it was given to me when he died.
My “studio” is a woodworking shop where I make handcrafted furniture out of local hardwoods. Much of my work is reproductions of American and English pieces, although I have made several more contemporary pieces as well. In recent years I have concentrated on making several styles of Windsor chairs.
Unlike tables and chests, chairs don’t have right angles, each piece is unique, and fitting them together is an art form. My first Windsor was like a luthier’s first violin — crude, amateurish, uncomfortable, uneven and crooked. The next was better, and each thereafter both a learning experience, a little better than the last and, it turns out, an addictive undertaking.
Although my work is done by hand and in a similar manner as furniture made in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, I do use some stationary and hand held machines, including a lathe, bandsaw, table saw, jointer, routers and sanders. I use primarily cherry, walnut, maple, oak, pine and elm, most of which is cut locally in Rappahannock County, some on our farm. I use finishes that are similar to what was used in 1780, including boiled linseed oil, shellac and bees wax.
Windsor chairs originated in England in the 1720, arrived in America soon thereafter, and became the most classic piece of American furniture — light, strong, relatively easy to make, comfortable and never boring. They were made in Philadelphia, New York, Providence and Boston. Constructed around a shaped wooden seat, they were strong, comfortable and handsome. Windsors became famous at the Constitutional Convention in 1776, and are still prominently on display at Constitution Hall in Philadelphia.