Finished 'Birth of Mary' Chair

Okay, here's the finished chair.  This is based on a painting done about 1510, by Hans Holbein from what appears to be a series of paintings on the birth of Mary, the mother of Jesus entitled "The First Bath".  It gets a bit confusing about what the actual name of the piece is, so I'll leave that to the art historians.  I started by calling it the 'Birth of Mary' chair, so I'm sticking with that.

Here's the original. (Taken from an on-line art print seller.)

Basically, a friend of mine asked, "Can you make me that chair?".  Of course, I said.  In the main, the chair is fairly straight forward, with the exception of the finial details on the back-posts.  So, I snagged the highest resolution image I could and zoomed in.

At first, I thought the top was faceted, and maybe the sides, after looking closer, I thought it might be smoother, and after drawing it out several ways, I thought that a more smooth approach would fit in with the chair better.

I'll post a "how it was made" entry later since I'm out of time right now.

Here's the finished project.  Hope you like it.  If anyone wants one, it's $375 the way it is.  This is in Cherry, with a split reed woven seat.  The shape can be modified a fair amount and different woods can be used to meet your style or pocketbook.

Finished chair photos courtesy of   Victoria Dye Photography