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

Progress on the "Birth of Mary" Chair

Things are going well.  Finished all the fitting and the upper rail joinery.  The decorative elements on the upper rail are moderately indistinct, so I improvised a bit.  Three holes, with carved concave edges, similar to Gothic tracery carving (but a whole lot simpler).

Here's the current status of the chair.  It pretty much looks like a frame because that's what it is.  Once the seat goes on, it'll miraculously transform into a chair.