Amish Style Bow Back Windsor Chairs With Paddled Spindles & a Single Bar H Shaped Stretcher

Since first introduced in England in the 18th century, the Windsor chair has been among the most traditional and classic styles of all wooden dining room seating styles. At first glance it appears that carpenters continue to make chairs that follow the original design and engineering that hasn’t changed in centuries. The Dutch and Germans produced their own versions of the Windsor and when the colonists came to the new world in America it was the Amish whose quality and craftsmanship helped to proliferate the chair so that it became the standard for dining both in home and in public. However one only needs to look at the details to discover upon closer inspection that the Windsor has a plethora of variations. For example, although it is true that all Windsor’s have spindled backs, a key feature of its successful structural design, its also true that not all Windsor’s have spindles that are alike. There are rods that are the same width from top to bottom, others that are turned with curved and knobbed rods, some that are shaped like arrows called Arrow Backs. Then there are the Fan Backs, Comb Backs, Sack Backs, Fiddle Backs, Ladder Backs, the Splat Backs and the Bird Cage. The lesser known Wheel backs and the common and most favored Bow Backs as well as a long list of many others. Among our favorites are the Paddle Backs which are being offered as a set of 4 on this page. These have narrow to a peg top and bottom that expand into wider panels that are flat rather than round (sometimes referred to as Pressed Backs and when observed from a few feet resemble the paddle tips of those that are used to row the boat. These paddles however have a feature that is among the more rare and difficult to find even with the modern AI tools we use to research comparable designs. In the space on the chair in which the seat meets the spindles an arched area is created by the 6 spindles that have created a pattern of ascending paddle tips that start closer to the seat on one end and ascend higher until the middle crescends then descends to mimic itself from there. Easier to refer to the photo than it is to find the right words to explain.

The scrolling turned legs in this solid oak set are straight but flared out to an angle in front and behind. They are supported by a single H stretcher which is different from the majority of other Windsor types which usually have two. The single H stretcher is a feature attributable toe the Amish design style.

Final note is regarding the seat. It has a subtle molded saddle which is a nearly universal feature among the Windsor chairs. The curvature of the saddle makes the hard wood surface more comfortable and we like that a lot.