I've no idea how old this chair is - only that it's OLD. It was one of eight at my great-grandfather Gee Sawyer's house in Warrensburg, TN. I don't know whether Gee built them late in the 19th c. (though I've never heard stories of him ever building furniture) or they were handed down to the Sawyers from another family (Gee's father-in-law made some of their furniture and may have made these chairs). I do know that according to Gee's children the chairs were always there - which makes this one at least 120 years old. We split the set up after the last Sawyer child died in 1997. I have a pair.
Much as I love it, it's not that useful to us today. It stand only 3 feet tall and the seat is a scant 15 inches from the ground - far too small to be anything more than a child's chair in our far from petite family. We have shoes that are bigger than the chair's legs. And given how large some of the Sawyers were, it's hard to see how it withstood Gee's rowdy brood.
But withstand it did. Today it serves to catch bags, books and laundry. Someday perhaps we'll perch a grandchild or two on our east Tennessee chairs and let them listen as we tell lies.
