SARGE Posted February 16, 2008 Share #1 Posted February 16, 2008 Gents, Here is something not often seen. A GAR chair from a defunct Grand Army of the Republic post in Kansas. This late 19th Century chair is one of a set of chairs that were sold from the attic of a downdown building in Eastern Kansas. My understanding is that this was the old meeting place for the local Civil War Veterans' GAR post and they had been in storage for many years before the new building owner needed the room. These chairs belonged to a now defunct GAR post and each one was the same. The bentwood chair is property marked to the post on the bottom of the seat and they all had "G.A.R." painted on the back of each chair. GAR Post equipment is not often seen and this is a large chair. Every GAR post no doubt had similar chairs but where did they all go? Anyone else come across chairs of this nature? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADMIN Posted February 16, 2008 Share #2 Posted February 16, 2008 Did you get the others or just the one? I can't imagine many of these survived! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SARGE Posted February 16, 2008 Author Share #3 Posted February 16, 2008 Did you get the others or just the one? I can't imagine many of these survived! My wife would only let me get one chair, so I took the pick of the litter. The collection is limited to the basement and she did not fancy giving up her dining room suite for a set of GAR chairs. Some of the other chairs were in various stages of disrepair and the dealer who aquired these some ten years ago sold them all off one at a time. So... I know that there are others out there. One other thing that I got from this grouping was a set of flatwear cutlery from the post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADMIN Posted February 16, 2008 Share #4 Posted February 16, 2008 Ah, okay. So they are all sold now. I though it was something you just picked up. Glad this one survived! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinBeyer Posted February 17, 2008 Share #5 Posted February 17, 2008 Sarge, Aurora, Illinois, has a surviving G.A.R. meeting hall. Within it there are several pieces of furniture like this. I'll see if I can't get some photographs. Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCF-Collector Posted February 17, 2008 Share #6 Posted February 17, 2008 Sarge - Very cool - and quite unique. I have a number of GAR photographs. I'll take a look through them and see if maybe I get lucky and find one with a chair visible that's similar to yours. It looks oddly familiar to me. Then again, we like antique furniture so I've probaly seen the style before. Materials from GAR Posts (not to mention UCV Camps) are few and far between - and under-collected. These things need to be preserved. I saw a large wooden GAR badge/sign from an old Post on eBay not long ago. If it hadn't been so darn big (6+ feet!) I might have bid on it! It was nicely restored. I do have a very large framed wall hanging from a Post in Massachusetts. It's huge - about 3' tall and probably 4' long. It's a collection of 1880's engravings of famous Yankees all nicely mounted - with a hand-painted title or label block where it was presented to the Post. I just know it hung in a prominent place in that Post - probably overlooking a set of chairs like yours! I wish I had a wall to hang it on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SARGE Posted February 18, 2008 Author Share #7 Posted February 18, 2008 Thanks for the feedback guys! I just wonder if this was a standard GAR chair or something this post had made to order? If you can spot similar ones in GAR halls or photos please let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinBeyer Posted March 12, 2008 Share #8 Posted March 12, 2008 SARGE, I visited the Aurora, Illinois, GAR Hall today. I took some photographs of the chairs they had on display at the museum for you. Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinBeyer Posted March 12, 2008 Share #9 Posted March 12, 2008 Here is another chair: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinBeyer Posted March 12, 2008 Share #10 Posted March 12, 2008 Here is the last chair I photographed: None of them had the GAR stencil on them like yours does. But, they appear to be of similar quality and vintage. I hope these were helpful. Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SARGE Posted March 13, 2008 Author Share #11 Posted March 13, 2008 Kevin, Thanks for the great photos. These chairs are very similar to mine and I see that two of them are rockers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCF-Collector Posted May 5, 2008 Share #12 Posted May 5, 2008 Sarge - I ran across a set of GAR Post Chairs (so advertised anyway) on a web site today so I thought I'd pass along the link. Not similar to yours - but marked GAR. Here's the link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SARGE Posted May 5, 2008 Author Share #13 Posted May 5, 2008 Well, I'll be darned. Those are some neat GAR chairs. Maybe some collector will be able to talk his wife into a new set of dining room chairs (I wan't) and pick those up. That is the trouble with collecting post items, the size. It is a lot easier to put reunion badges into a riker mount than fit 6-8 chairs into your house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now