William Hogarth’s Analysis of Beauty pronounces the S curve as the “line of beauty,” its undulating line conveying pleasure to the eye: “How inelegant would the shapes of all our moveables be without it?” This superb side chair, along with another chair (B.69.65), elegantly illustrates Hogarth’s observation and concurrently manifests the fully developed interpretation of the Late Baroque in Philadelphia seating furniture. Here, in this rhythmic flow of curves, the craftsman has further accentuated the chair’s contours by fully rounding its stiles and integrating them into the crest rail. The pair of scrolled volutes that frame the crest’s scalloped shell repeats the graceful S shape and crowns the overall effect.

Technical notes: Black walnut; black walnut (slip seat front and sides), southern yellow pine (slip seat back). The rear leg terminals are unconventional for Philadelphia seat furniture. The seat rim is cut directly from the rails rather than applied. The upper portion of the shoe is replaced. The rear seat rail is incised I.

Related examples: Antiques 79 (March 1961), p. 229; Kindig 1978, no. 24; Monkhouse and Michie 1986, p. 165, no. 106. See also B.69.65.

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.