Side Chair

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Side Chair
Datec. 1740–1760
Made inBoston, Massachusetts, United States
MediumBlack walnut; soft maple
Dimensions40 × 21 3/4 × 21 in. (101.6 × 55.2 × 53.3 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.60.51
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Queen Anne Bedroom
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

Flat, curvilinear stretchers such as these have long been associated with Newport furniture. More distinctive and unusual is the hooped shoulder joining the stiles and crest rail, a detail patterned after English chairs. On the basis of these elements, along with the publication of a set purportedly made by Job Townsend for the Eddy family, chairs of this type were routinely assigned to Newport, many of them attributed to Townsend. The documentation for these chairs has never been substantiated, and scholarship has established a Boston origin.

Technical notes: Black walnut; soft maple (slip seat). The construction is typical of New England chairs from this period (see B.57.75). The crest rail is joined to the stiles at the top of the ear rather than near the shoulder. The front seat rail and slip seat are incised IIIII.

Related examples: Chairs with shaped front seat rails include Greenlaw 1974, pp. 60–61, no. 52; Sack 1969–92, vol. 2, p. 363, no. 914; vol. 4, p. 1015, no. P3838; vol. 6, p. 1650, no. P4768; Antiques 147 (May 1995), p. 642. Unpublished examples belong to the Art Institute of Chicago (acc. no. 1970-102); and The Denver Art Museum (acc. no. 1979.62). Similar chairs with plain seat rails are American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, sale 3804, January 2–4,1930, lot 492; Carpenter 1954, p. 39, no. 13; Ott 1965, pp. 4–5, no. 4; Hummel 1970–71, pt. 2, pp. 902–4; Sack 1969–92, vol. 8, p. 2354, no. P5887; Antiques 131 (January 1987), p. 45; an unpublished example belongs to the Newport Historical Society.

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[Israel Sack, New York]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1960; given to MFAH, by 1966.
Exhibition History
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
Front seat rail and slip seat incised IIIII

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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scan from file photograph
c.1730–1800, decoration added c. 1800–1843
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Side Chair (one of a pair)
c. 1730–1800, decoration added c. 1800–1843
Black walnut; soft maple and eastern white pine
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Side Chair (one of a pair)
c. 1735–1765
Black walnut and soft maple
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Side Chair (one of a pair)
c. 1735–1765
Black walnut and soft maple
B.60.31.1
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scan from file photograph
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Black walnut; black walnut and southern yellow pine
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Couch
c. 1720–1740
Soft maple
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Pair of Side Chairs
Benjamin Henry Latrobe
1808
Yellow poplar, oak, maple, eastern white pine, gold leaf, gesso, and cane
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Set of Six Side Chairs
c. 1830–1850
Mahogany; chestnut
B.2007.3.1-.6
Side Chair (one of a set of six)
c. 1830–1850
Mahogany; chestnut
B.2007.3.4
Side Chair (one of a set of six)
c. 1830–1850
Mahogany with chestnut
B.2007.3.5
Side Chair
c. 1745–1795
Black walnut; southern yellow pine
B.69.65