Snelling Saran chairs - lacquer?

[Antipodes]

I got four late 1950s Snelling "Saran" chairs recently - most interesting because it's a set of four, each in a different colour (pictured). Apart from some slight webbing issues on the green one and a couple of easily repairable hairlines cracks there's not much wrong with them.....except there appears to be no lacquer of any kind on them.

I would've thought Australia in the late 50s, even modernist furniture would have some sort of lacquer on it. Does anyone have any of these and know for sure?

The design is too crazy and intricate to dismantle and re-lacquer. Any other ideas on protecting the wood?

[Chief012]

I have a friend that has a few, they are sealed however as the webbing has been replaced I could not say 100% if it was original or not I am afraid. It looks to have been there for a while, but that does not mean that much - sorry I could not help more.

[Antipodes]

Hi Chief,

Helps a bit. I've dropped a line to a couple of dealers I know. The more I look at them the more I think they've just been outdoors and the lacquer has worn off. The dilemma is what to do instead of lacquer so I don't need to remove all that webbing. Danish oil I'm thinking but no little about it.

[Chief012]

Will be hard to do anything with that webbing still on them me thinks!

Good luck with it, they are very cool chairs