Great Chair

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Great Chair
Datec. 1680–1710
Probable placeMassachusetts, United States
MediumSoft maple; ash
Dimensions46 × 24 1/2 × 20 in. (116.8 × 62.2 × 50.8 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.69.350
Non exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

The turned design of the spindles on the back of this great chair, with their arrowhead-shaped terminals, points to a Massachusetts provenance. Idiosyncrasies of the overall turnings, such as the upper rail, which in design does not match the other two horizontal rails, and variations in the turnings of the spindles have been thought to indicate replacement ele­ments. However, consistency of wear, color, and finish history indicate that these elements are original. The inconsis­tencies of turning would then suggest that this chair is the product of either a rural craftsman or an urban maker of moderate skill.

Technical notes: Soft maple (right rear post, left middle spindle); ash (right seat rail), rush (replaced).

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.


ProvenanceBy tradition owned by Solomon Levy, Boston; [John Kenneth Byard (1905–1960), Silvermine, Norwalk, Connecticut]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, September 18, 1953; given to MFAH, prior to 1969.
Exhibition History
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Great Chair
Ephraim Tinkham, II
c. 1675–1690
Ash, white oak, and soft maple
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Great Chair
c. 1670–1700
Soft maple and white oak
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c. 1700–1725
Poplar, ash, and soft maple
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Side Chair
c. 1720–1750
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Great Chair
c. 1660–1700
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Easy Chair
c. 1730–1760
Black walnut and soft maple; soft maple, hard maple, beech, and sylvestris pine
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Lolling Chair
c. 1785–1825
Mahogany and black cherry; ash and soft maple
B.69.369
Side Chair (one of a pair)
c. 1785–1799
Mahogany and ebony; eastern white pine, ash, and soft maple
B.61.92.1
scan from file photograph
c. 1785–1799
Mahogany and ebony; eastern white pine, ash, and soft maple
B.61.92.2
Easy Chair
c. 1740–1795
Black walnut; white oak, soft maple, ash, and yellow-poplar
B.69.31
Side Chair
William Seaver and Nathaniel Frost
c. 1800–1805
Eastern white pine, birch, ash, and soft maple
B.69.427
Side Chair
Thomas Seymour
c. 1819–1825
Mahogany; ash, soft maple, mahogany, and white oak
B.88.2