Easy Chair

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Easy Chair
Datec. 1780–1800
Made inRhode Island, United States
MediumMahogany; soft maple and birch
Dimensions47 7/8 × 35 3/4 × 28 3/4 in. (121.6 × 90.8 × 73 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.60.84
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Newport Room
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

The stop-fluted Marlborough leg is a regional preference that is unique in America to Rhode Island furniture. It appears on a range of forms, including side chairs (B.57.71), sofas, a variety of table types (B.57.61), and beds. The Bayou Bend easy chair, with its stop-fluted legs, essential stretchers, and tapered conical arms, is a classic interpretation of the form. Like New England cabriole-legged examples, these chairs were produced with rounded or occasionally serpentine crest rails, the latter more in keeping with this type of leg. The chair’s tufted cushion reproduces a period example.

Technical notes: Mahogany; soft maple (rear upholstery rail, arm supports), birch (wing stile). The stretchers are blind-tenoned. There is no evidence that the frame was finished with decorative tacking. Penciled on a wing is the notation: “UPHOLSTERED JULY 30, 1914 AT 347 MOODY ST”; the city has not been identified.

Related examples: Greenlaw 1974, pp. 78–79, no. 69; Stillinger 1990, pp. 52–53, 152.

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[David Stockwell (1907–1996), Wilmington, Delaware]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, October 17, 1960; given to the MFAH.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Notation on wing: UPHOLSTERED JULY 30, 1914 AT 347 MOODY ST [pencil; city has not been identified]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Easy Chair
c. 1750–1800
Mahogany, soft maple, and birch; soft maple and birch
B.57.76
Easy Chair
c. 1750–1780
Soft maple; birch and soft maple
B.66.1
Side Chair (one of a pair)
c. 1805–1820
Mahogany, birch, and unidentified inlay; birch and soft maple
B.57.70.1
Side Chair (one of a pair)
c. 1805–1820
Mahogany, birch, and unidentified inlay; birch and soft maple
B.57.70.2
Easy Chair
c. 1715–1735
Soft maple, eastern white pine, hard maple, and birch
B.58.104
Side Chair (one of a pair)
John Townsend
1800
Mahogany; birch, soft maple, eastern white pine, and poplar
B.66.11.1
Side Chair (one of a pair)
John Townsend
1800
Mahogany; birch, soft maple, eastern white pine, and poplar
B.66.11.2
Gentleman's Secretary
c. 1790–1820
Mahogany, eastern white pine, soft maple, and unidentified inlay; birch, yellow-poplar, and eastern white pine
B.61.94
Armchair
c. 1750–1800
Mahogany; soft maple and birch
B.57.95
Bedstead
c. 1800–1820
Mahogany, birch, basswood, and eastern white pine; soft maple
B.69.393
Side Chair (one of a pair)
c. 1785–1820
Mahogany; eastern white pine, ash, beech, birch, and hard maple
B.69.376.1
scan from file photograph
c. 1785–1820
Mahogany; eastern white pine, ash, beech, birch, and hard maple
B.69.376.2