Buying a Bow Arm Morris Chair, Part 1

My hope is that someday I'll be making these, but till then, I'm looking to buy one.

Went to Historic Lighting in Monrovia today with Jacob (age 5).  The staff were friendly and low-key, my favorite kind of salespeople.  We spent over an hour sitting in every chair in the building.  Amazing stuff.  

They have a chair there called "Jacob's Ladder."  Jacs sorta liked it and it sorta gave him the creeps.  It looks something like this.

Came in thinking I wanted a Warren Hile Bow Arm Morris Chair, like this one:

And left knowing I wanted the same chair made by Caledonia:

Looks exactly the same you say?  Well, yeah, basically and especially in pictures.  But in person you can tell that the Caledonia has more of a, for lack of a better term, ENFP personality.

The helpful salesman at HL, put it this way (I paraphrase), with the Hile you know exactly what you're going to get.  The piece you get is the same as the piece they made 12 years ago and will be the same as the one they make 12 years from now....  

With the Caledonia, there's more variation.  A little wider this time, a little narrower next time, notches here, but not there.  I like that.

And, to round out the conversation, they are nearly identical in price.