Armchair

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Armchair
  • Bow-back Windsor Armchair
Datec. 1790–1800
Probable placeProvidence, Rhode Island, United States
MediumEastern white pine, soft maple, white oak, mahogany, and ash. Old but not original green paint.
Dimensions38 1/4 × 23 × 19 1/2 in. (97.2 × 58.4 × 49.5 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.69.411
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Newport Room
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

This chair represents a distinctive Rhode Island variant on the bow-back Windsor that originated in Philadelphia. The notable Rhode Island features are the mahogany arms, which lend a quality of elegance, and the inward taper at the bottom of the legs. While mahogany arms appear also in Philadelphia examples, they tend to be ovoid in cross section, as opposed to the rectangular design here. The vase-turned lower section of the back spindles echoes the back spindle design found in an equally distinctive group of Rhode Island low-back Windsor armchairs with cross stretchers. The crisp turnings, raked arm supports, and curved, scrolled design of the arms make this chair a particularly fine example.

Technical notes: Eastern white pine (seat), mahogany (arms), soft maple (legs, stretchers, arm supports), white oak (crest rail, spindles), ash (spindles). Old but not original green paint.

Related examples: Williamsburg (Greenlaw 1974, nos. 150, 152); MFA, Boston; advertisement of Tillou Gallery, Antiques 96 (October 1969), p. 453; RISD (Michie and Monkhouse 1986, no. 150); Santore 1987, no. 137, p. 134; Chipstone (Rodriguez Roque 1984, no. 107); Evans 1996, p. 275, fig. 6–71.

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.


Provenance[Ross H. Maynard, Springfield, Massachusetts] [1]; purchased by Miss Hogg, 1925; given to MFAH, by 1969.



[1] Maynard noted a long history of ownership in the Poughkeepsie, New York, area.


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

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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B.61.92.1
scan from file photograph
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Mahogany, eastern white pine, soft maple, and unidentified inlay; birch, yellow-poplar, and eastern white pine
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Image of B.60.37.2, representative of set
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Mahogany; eastern white pine, ash, red oak, sweetgum, and black cherry
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