Ebay win: arts&crafts dining chairs

Today we went to pick up some chairs that I won during the week on Ebay. Here's some pictures and the description from the auction listing:



"Set of four good quality arts and crafts oak dining chairs, circa 1900. They are 43" tall (backs are 25" high from top of seat), 17 and a half inches at widest point. Tall straight backs with central roundal and shaped top finials. All chairs have joined oak stretchers and front rail and kick-out feet. The chairs have drop-in seats covered in Liberty arts & crafts material, over horsehair filling and webbing. Each seat is stamped with its own letter to correspond with the letters on the chairs. The chairs are in excellent condition"

I nearly didn't bid on them as figured they'd go for a lot more than I was prepared to pay. I usually low-ball my bids on this sort of thing because I have to factor in how much it'll cost to (eventually) ship them to Australia. But, Auctionsniper is amazingly helpful especially when you're up against clueless bidders. (It also has the advantage of letting you change your mind and not bid up till the last seconds! - very good at repairing the damage from "impulse shopping"!)

Anyway, I've had too much luck getting bargains on Ebay to feel good about paying top dollar now except for something that is perfect and I can't imagine ever coming up for sale again! There's only been a couple of those things and I always bid if I can because I felt so bad after the one I let slip away.... it was several years ago, Ebay was just getting going in the UK, and a huge stained glass ceiling came up for auction. In the end it sold for £1000 - a lot of money but given its size, perfect condition and uniqueness, well worth it, and I've been regretting not bidding for it ever since. It'd cost at least 10 times that to have a replica made nowadays. It was pre-Amherst; I talked myself out of it as we'd just finished building our conservatory here in London so I didn't have anywhere I could use it.

Anyway, back to the chairs. These weren't in my "perfect" category because there's plenty of this kind of thing around still if you're prepared to pay. But they're lovely and they'll definitely be handy. You can always use extra chairs and these ones will be great for displaying in a hall, spare in the study, etc and then using when we have a full house for a dinner party. The only downside is that they're not as comfortable as I'd have liked, but fine for occasional use and they'll look wonderful the rest of the time.