Hi. I have a very unusual antique chair I inherited from my grandmother. I remember it from when I was a child - she had it in her home in Montreal from at least 1974. She lived in Canada her whole life (Halifax and Montreal) and had connections in New York and Boston. We used to call this piece the Cradle Chair. It measures 28 in side to side, and 22" in height and depth. It's symmetrical front and back. It used to have a blue silk cushion with gold braid trim, but that's been lost. It has 4 lion face motifs on the corners. It also has carved leafwork along the top of the legs panels, and near the feet. One piece of leafwork has broken off and you can see that it was glued on. It has bow-shaped struts between the front and back legs. I don't see any signature, label, marking or date. As far as I can tell there's no metal hardware and it was put together with dowels. Overall it appears to be in good condition except for the one piece of leafwork and some surface scratches. The whole thing feels wobbly so it's not really functional though.
Re: Antique backless chair with lion motif
This piece is a late 19th century "Dantesca" chair, an variation of the "Savonarola" chair. The style gets its name from Girolamo Savonarola (September 21, 1452 – May 23, 1498), who was a late 15th CenturyCatholic Monk often pictured seated in such a chair. His fame was his crusade against what he called "The Vanities". His followers collected up the things Savonarola claimed were immodest and held huge bonfires. In 1498 they held the last bonfire of the vanities and burned Savonarola. At auction they generally sell for a couple of hundred bucks a piece