The two chairs illustrated (p. 255) differ slightly in details of construction. That on the left has the plain urn splat, a survival of the Queen Anne type. The seat is finely shaped and the legs are cabriole form. The top rail is almost straight, and is ornamented at the two ends with turned discs. The three stretchers are turned, and in the adjacent chair the stretchers are similar, save in a slight variation in the pattern of the turning. But here the splat is perforated with an intricate design suggestive of the lines of Chippendale; the top rail is a departure in form, imparting a distinctiveness which lifts the chair from the ordinary type. [Illustration: WINDSOR CHAIR. With plain fiddle splat of Queen Anne type, Chippendale top rail and cabriole legs, and three turned stretchers.] [Illustration: WINDSOR CHAIR. With pierced fiddle splat, shaped arms, cabriole legs, and three turned stretchers. (_By the courtesy of Messrs. Phillips, Hitchin._)] [Illustration: CHIPPENDALE WINDSOR CHAIRS. Chippendale splats. The type of splat indicates the date of Windsor chairs.] [Illustration: HEPPLEWHITE WINDSOR CHAIR. Exceptionally fine legs back and front. Urn back. Probably Welsh carving.] [Illustration: HEPPLEWHITE PERIOD WINDSOR CHAIR. With wheel back, in yew. (_By courtesy of Messrs. A. B. Daniell & Sons._)] =Chippendale Style Windsor Chairs.=--The page of chairs (p. 257) tells its own story. The beautiful sweep of the curved back is always a sign of the old and true form. Later imitations or replicas seem somehow to lose this effect. It has been suggested that the back of this style was produced by the village wheelwright in horseshoe form, but possibly that is a conjecture which is more fanciful than real. It has also--collectors are often fond of inventing theories to fit little-known facts--been asserted that the wheel-back variety, which is of somewhat more modern growth, is due to the same origin. This wheel is fretted with six triangular openings. One chair on this page has the wheel unperforated. In the examination of the details of the four examples there is nothing of great importance to differentiate them from each other in construction. The two at the top are suggestive of Chippendale in the ornament employed in the splat. The lower two incline more to the slightly later Hepplewhite period. Of these the one on the left has only fourteen upright rails at the lower portion and six in the upper portion of the back, in comparison with sixteen and eight in the other chairs. The legs of this chair are exceptionally fine both back and front. The work in the splat is slightly suggestive of Welsh carving, especially that style associated with Welsh love-spoons.