Uhmmmm....If What I Read On The Internet Is To Be Believed, This Is A Burke Chair! Like The Famous Tulip Burke Chair "Burke"! Status: Huh?

These were actually bought by the Girlfriend many years ago during our early years as a couple and our first adventures in attending estate sales. I actually didn't think too much about them either way. She liked them so we brought them home. They were in continuous use for several years until she moved up here to Florissant.

When we moved her up here to north county we had to break these "safari" style vintage

modern chairs down to aid in packing the moving van. Unfortunately they got stuck in the

Garage and have been languishing there ever since. Oh...and we have a pair of them! I only

had time to clean one up and re-assemble it this morning since I had to meet a buyer who

relieved me of the Pale Blue Vintage Modern Armchair featured some time back.

Looking around the web this late evening / early morning I've come to find information

stating that these chairs were made by Arkana in Bath United Kingdom and that they were

designed by Maurice Burke. Most of us know of Maurice Burke by just the name "Burke"

and associate it with a particular type of "Tulip" dining chair / dining set made by Arkana. The

Burke / Arkana dining chair looks very similar to the Saarinen / Knoll variation except that

the Burke base is a four footed "X" base instead of a circular base. The Arkana and Knoll

tables also look very similar except perhaps the Knoll "neck" looks a little more delicate.

There aren't any Arkana markings on this chair as far as my limited perusal has been able to

come up with but the second chair in the garage has the usual Arkana stamping on the vinyl

of the seat and both are a dead ringer for all the others on the web that are tagged as Arkana /

Burke. I'll admit, before looking around for info on these chairs I had always assumedthat the

label "Burke" was the manufacturer of the Tulip style dining sets! I'm always learningnew

things here.

This particular example is the lesser of the two we have. It was a 50/50 shot at which I was

gonna pull out of the Garage this morning. You'll notice that the armrest band has become

unattached at the top of the front right leg. I'm hoping to pull this apart and repair this issue

soon. I don't think anything is really broken. I think the screw has just pulled though the band

that is covered in vinyl. Easy fix I'm sure. I don't think these chairs will become available any

time soon. The Girlfriend really likes them and after cleaning them up and giving them a little

Howards Feed-N-Wax love, they are kinda growing on me too!