Side Chair

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Side Chair
Datec. 1745–1795
Possible placePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
MediumBlack walnut; southern yellow pine
Dimensions41 7/8 × 19 3/4 × 19 1/4 in. (106.4 × 50.2 × 48.9 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.69.65
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Queen Anne Sitting Room
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

The most discernible of the subtle differences between this side chair and the previous example (B.69.66) is the handling of the knee brackets, here terminating in a simple ruffle, a presage of the Rococo.

Technical notes: Black walnut; southern yellow pine (slip seat). For the most part this chair was assembled using the standard Philadelphia formula (see B.69.69). The seat rails and rim are constructed of solid walnut and the rear seat brackets are applied rather than cut out of the solid. The seat framing is not square, as the sides flare outward. The inside front and rear seat rails, as well as the slip seat, are incised IV. A label attached to the seat reads: “This chair belonged to Aunt Shoemaker,’ a great Aunt of Grand Mother H. Williams. It is probably 150 years old April 8, 1892.”

Related examples: Heckscher 1985, pp. 86–87, no. 42, records another chair from this set. A similar example is in Rodriguez Roque 1984, pp. 114–15, no. 48.

Book excerpt: Warren, David B., Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.


Provenance[David Stockwell (1907–1996), Philadelphia]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1953; given to MFAH, 1969.
Exhibition History

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Label attached to seat: This chair belonged to 'Aunt Shoemaker,' a great Aunt of Grand Mother H. Williams. It is probably 150 years old April 8, 1892
Incised front seat rail, rear seat rail, and slip seat: IV

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

scan from file photograph
c. 1735–1795
Black walnut; black walnut and southern yellow pine
B.69.66
Armchair
c. 1750–1790
Black walnut; southern yellow pine
B.69.249
Side Chair
c. 1735–1795
Black walnut; black walnut and southern yellow pine
B.69.246
scan from file photograph
c. 1730–1775
Black walnut; black walnut and southern yellow pine
B.69.407.2
Side Chair (one of a pair)
c. 1730–1800, decoration added c. 1800–1843
Black walnut; soft maple and eastern white pine
B.69.247.1
scan from file photograph
c.1730–1800, decoration added c. 1800–1843
Black walnut; soft maple and eastern white pine
B.69.247.2
scan from file photograph
c. 1730–1775
Black walnut; black walnut and southern yellow pine
B.69.407.1
Side Chair
c. 1730–1775
Black walnut; black walnut and southern yellow pine
B.69.69
Pair of Side Chairs
Benjamin Henry Latrobe
1808
Yellow poplar, oak, maple, eastern white pine, gold leaf, gesso, and cane
B.90.9.1,.2
Side Chair
c. 1740–1760
Black walnut; soft maple
B.60.51
scan from file photograph
c. 1760–1800
Black walnut; red gum, Atlantic white cedar, yellow-poplar, southern yellow pine, and eastern white pine
B.69.527
Eight-day Clock
Peter Stretch
c. 1730–1740
Black walnut; southern yellow pine, eastern white pine, and Atlantic white cedar
B.86.4