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Mario Lucchesi
03-23-2007, 7:31 AM
I was reading a book about American Furniture and it said that in 1798 Ben Franklin commisioned 24 windsor chairs and paid $44.00 for all of them. WOW.

Can't make a living now on a couple of bucks per chair.
Jim Becker
03-23-2007, 9:43 AM
You almost can't buy the material to put on the seat for $44... :) ...for one chair.
Brian Penning
03-23-2007, 9:59 AM
Hmmmm...using a financial calculator. $44 then is now about $700. $700 for 24 chairs is pretty cheap.
Mike Henderson
03-23-2007, 11:08 AM
Hmmmm...using a financial calculator. $44 then is now about $700. $700 for 24 chairs is pretty cheap.
$700 divided by 24 is about $30 each. I certainly couldn't make one chair for $30, even for just the materials - not even a Windsor chair that uses mostly green wood.

Mike
Robert Mayer
03-23-2007, 11:33 AM
That was back in the day when my grandfather had to walk to school, in the snow, ... uphill 4 miles.
Ted Miller
03-23-2007, 11:37 AM
I could maybe make a good chair for $60.00 bucks but I need about 5K in tools, lol...
Jim Becker
03-23-2007, 11:40 AM
That was back in the day when my grandfather had to walk to school, in the snow, ... uphill 4 miles.

In both directions... :D
Neil Lamens
03-23-2007, 11:41 AM
Shop space and taxes was cheaper back then!!!!
Greg Cole
03-23-2007, 11:49 AM
Grandpa had to walk home for lunch too as school's didn't provide lunch! So it was 4 trips uphill in the snow....
Mike Henderson
03-24-2007, 12:13 PM
Hmmmm...using a financial calculator. $44 then is now about $700. $700 for 24 chairs is pretty cheap.
I was thinking about Brian's calculation that $44 in 1798 is equal to $700 today and did some calculations myself. The equation for inflation is A*(1+i)^n, where A is the amount, i is the average rate of inflation, and n is the number of years (and there's 209 years from 1798 to today).

The average inflation rate makes a big difference in the results. For example, if we assume an average inflation rate of 3%, the $44 is now equal to a bit over $21,000. But if the average inflation rate is assumed to be 2%, the $44 is only a bit less than $3,000. The average per chair in these two cases would be about $875 each in the first case and about $115 in the second case.

While it would be difficult to produce a Windsor chair today (by hand) for $115, it would certainly be profitable at $875. Reality may be somewhere in the middle, indicating that ole Ben paid a fair price.

Mike