Andy Dingley wrote:

I assume the chair itself is made of oak,

If it's Irish, it's not safe to assume anything. Shortage of timber led
to any old bit of tree finding its way into furniture.

Thanks for the response.
The chair is actually English, or at least from England.

It's also somewhat unlikely to be made of oak in any part. Generally the
favoured timbers were elm for the seat (it doesn't split in narrow
cross-grain sections) and either beech or ash for the spindles and
hoops, because they steam bend and turn nicely. They also coppice well,
particularly ash, as a source of fast-growing cheap spindles.

There is a wooden "splat" (not sure if that is the right word) at the back,
which looks like oak to me.
After advice given me here earlier,
I looked again at the seat, and I think this is probably elm,

Oak doesn't bend or turn well and it grows in big pieces on slow-growing
trees. If you have oak, use it for big flat boards instead of turnery,

but what would this bent strut be made of?

Be careful working on truly old Windsors. They're surprisingly valuable
- especially Irish chairs.

Try putting some photos onto the web, then asking in rec.antiques.
There's a knowledgeable chap in there from Northern Ireland who might be
helpful.

I'll do that.
Thanks for the suggestion.

I have the bits of the broken semicircular strut,
and thought as a first step I'd try gluing them together,
perhaps with a dowel where they join to strengthen it.
However, I think the strut is probably too broken for this to work,
so I was going to see next if I could find a cabinet maker
who would make me a new strut.
(This is slightly more awkward than might appear,
as the strut is fatter in the middle
than at the ends where it is slotted into the two front legs.)

The chair is very nice.
I think it belonged to my Cheshire great-grandmother,
who died in 1890.
I rescued it from my American sister-in-law (living in Cheshire)
who was about to throw it out.

I was told that my great-grandmother was
"Cheshire born and Cheshire bred,
Thick in arm and thick in head".
I don't know if that is a general remark about Cheshire folk?




--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail (80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland