Easy Chair

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Easy Chair
Datec. 1730–1800
Probable placeMassachusetts, United States
Possible placeRhode Island, United States
MediumBlack walnut and soft maple; soft maple
Dimensions47 3/4 × 34 1/4 × 27 1/2 in. (121.3 × 87 × 69.9 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.59.95
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Queen Anne Sitting Room
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

In this easy chair, a classic Late Baroque New England example, the C-scrolled arm supports seen on earlier chairs have been replaced by tapering conical shapes, which in New England remained popular throughout the Late Baroque and Rococo periods. By the mid-eighteenth century this design had become so standardized that regional characteristics are difficult to discern.

Technical notes: Black walnut, soft maple (rear legs); soft maple. The top of the wings and crest rail retain their original upholstery materials and were not sampled. The easy chair’s construction follows the standard eighteenth-century New England practice (see B.69.252). The back retains its original webbing, grass stuffing, and linen cover.

Related examples: Downs 1952, no. 74; Kane 1976, pp. 227–29, no. 212; Jobe and Kaye 1984, pp. 362–64, no. 101; Heckscher 1985, pp. 121–22, nos. 70, 71; Jobe et al. 1991, pp. 120–22, no. 44; Wood 1996, pp. 68–69, no. 29.

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), Wilmington, Delaware]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, December 2, 1959; given to MFAH, by 1966.
Exhibition History
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Easy Chair
c. 1730–1760
Black walnut and soft maple; soft maple, hard maple, beech, and sylvestris pine
B.69.252
scan from file photograph
c. 1740–1795
Black walnut; black walnut, sweetgum, cherry, and soft maple
B.69.251
Easy Chair
c. 1740–1795
Black walnut; white oak, soft maple, ash, and yellow-poplar
B.69.31
Side Chair (one of a pair)
c. 1755–1775
Black walnut; soft maple
B.69.90.1
Side Chair (one of a pair)
c. 1755–1775
Black walnut; soft maple
B.69.90.2
Side Chair (one of a pair)
c. 1735–1765
Black walnut and soft maple
B.60.31.2
Side Chair (one of a pair)
c. 1735–1765
Black walnut and soft maple
B.60.31.1
Side Chair
c. 1740–1760
Black walnut; soft maple
B.60.51
Roundabout Chair
c. 1730–1790
Black walnut; soft maple
B.69.250
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
Easy Chair
c. 1750–1800
Mahogany, soft maple, and birch; soft maple and birch
B.57.76