Philadelphia’s population at the threshold of revolution is estimated at 28,000, making it colonial America’s principal urban center. Characteristics of Philadelphia Rococo seat furniture are integrated into these pleasing chairs. The articulated claw feet, mirror-image shells on the front seat rail and undulating crest rail, stumplike rear legs, and seat frame are all executed in the manner identified with that city.

Technical notes: Mahogany; yellow-poplar (corner blocks, seat frame), southern yellow pine (slip seat frame), Atlantic white cedar (shims behind rear corner blocks). The carved shell is integral with the front seat rail. The front blocks are two-part quarter round, the rear triangular with a shim beneath the shoe. The slip seats retain their original foundations. The front seat rail of B.69.77.1 is stamped VI, its slip seat VII. The front seat rail of B.69.77.2 is stamped I, its slip seat II.

Related examples: Similar chairs, possibly from the same set, include Antiques 37 (March 1940), p. 114; Antiques 37 (May 1940), p. 224; Antiques 46 (October 1944), p. 185; Kirk 1972b, p. 80, no. 69; Kane 1976, pp. 133–34, no. 112; Christie’s, New York, sale 5047, April 11, 1981, no. 477; Kirk 1982, p. 257, no. 878. A similar example bears William Savery’s label (Sack 1969–92, vol. 9, p. 2468, no. P6134).

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, 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.