Armchair

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Armchair
Datec. 1740–1760
Made inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
MediumSoft maple; red oak and soft maple
Dimensions41 1/2 × 25 1/4 × 23 1/2 in. (105.4 × 64.1 × 59.7 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.69.223
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Maple Bedroom
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

This armchair with arched crest and vase-shaped splat, referred to as banister-back in the period, represents the most stylish variant of the Philadelphia crookt-foot chairs (see B.66.24). These banister-back armchairs bear certain analogies to maple rush-bottom banister-back armchairs produced in New England, and it may be that they reflect the presence in Philadelphia of imported Boston-made chairs. The molded, vertically curved arms and ball-and-ring stretcher certainly reflect New England design (see B.20.1 and B.68.3). Related Philadelphia chairs with characteristic flat arms bear the label of William Savery (1721/22–1787), who early in his career worked with Soloman Fussell. However, this example differs from the Savery chairs in several important details beyond the New England-style arm and front stretcher features. It has turned single side stretchers that swell gently at the center and have cone-shaped terminals, unlike the Savery arrangement of double unornamented stretchers, and the vase-shaped turnings of the arm supports are shorter than those found on Savery’s armchairs.

Technical notes: Soft maple; red oak (rear interior seat rail), soft maple (front and left interior seat rails), rush (replaced).

Related examples: Winterthur (Forman 1980, p. 62); Wright’s Ferry Mansion, Columbia, Pennsylvania (Zimmerman 1996, p. 736, pls. I, la).

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.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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