D R Dimes chairs?

Hello Everyone,
I am trying to figure out if the chairs I bought the other day are Dimes chairs. They are not signed but look like his work. I am including a few photos. Any information is much appreciated. They are as light as a feather!Attachment 14764Attachment 14765Attachment 14766Attachment 14767

I am not sure the photos attached correctly.

Those are Dimes chairs because almost no one else in the 80's / 90's made a Continuous Arm with a Bamboo leg. The stub tenons on the base are not fully fitted into the stretcher, another detail that was pretty much unique to Dimes (done for speed in production, wasn't really desirable). Plus, that extended arm variation was unique to the Dimes form, its not an exact copy of the EB Tracy original.

What is interesting is someone went to the trouble to sand off the DR DIMES brand under the seat and re-stain the bottom. See the interruption in the planing on the seat bottom? It's been sanded off in the middle where the brand goes. Some stores 30 to 40 years ago would do that so they could private label them or spin a yarn about the chairs and thereby charge more than the other DR Dimes dealers. If all the chairs look like that on the bottom, that's exactly what happened.

The Keeping Room was the largest DR DIMES dealer in the world pre-2000. I personally handled thousands of those chairs over a 13 year period. We discontinued our relationship with Dimes in 2000.

Those chairs are really worn, finish-wise. Suggest you paint them, since they are VERY difficult to re-stain. Here's a re-paint I did of a Windsor bench two years ago.

https://www.myfurnitureforum.com/sho...=windsor+paint

Quote:

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Originally Posted by drcollie

Those are Dimes chairs because almost no one else in the 80's / 90's made a Continuous Arm with a Bamboo leg. The stub tenons on the base are not fully fitted into the stretcher, another detail that was pretty much unique to Dimes (done for speed in production, wasn't really desirable). Plus, that extended arm variation was unique to the Dimes form, its not an exact copy of the EB Tracy original.

What is interesting is someone went to the trouble to sand off the DR DIMES brand under the seat and re-stain the bottom. See the interruption in the planing on the seat bottom? It's been sanded off in the middle where the brand goes. Some stores 30 to 40 years ago would do that so they could private label them or spin a yarn about the chairs and thereby charge more than the other DR Dimes dealers. If all the chairs look like that on the bottom, that's exactly what happened.

The Keeping Room was the largest DR DIMES dealer in the world pre-2000. I personally handled thousands of those chairs over a 13 year period. We discontinued our relationship with Dimes in 2000.

Those chairs are really worn, finish-wise. Suggest you paint them, since they are VERY difficult to re-stain. Here's a re-paint I did of a Windsor bench two years ago.

https://www.myfurnitureforum.com/sho...=windsor+paint

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Hello again,
Thank you for the quick response. Yes, each one is the same where the planing is absent in the center. I will post photos tomorrow to this thread. Do all the Dimes seats have planing marks on the underside of the seat? Also, what are the woods used to create these chairs do you think?
Thanks again,
Amanda

Yes, they all had planing marks on the seat bottoms. Those were actually done by running the seat blank through a special machine made by Hiatchi to mimic hand planing marks,

Dimes chairs are made of Eastern White Pine seats, Maple base, and Oak bendings. Spindles were usually maple.