Armchair

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Armchair
Datec. 1795–1815
Possible placePennsylvania, United States
MediumSoft maple, oak, hickory, and yellow-poplar
Dimensions38 1/2 × 25 1/4 × 20 3/4 in. (97.8 × 64.1 × 52.7 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of the estate of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.79.205
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Glazed Porch
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

The use of turned wood to imitate bamboo came from England to Philadelphia in the 1780s and soon was incorporated into Windsor chair design. This sack-back armchair with its soft-contour bamboo turnings combines the new motif with the scrolled-knuckle arm terminals of earlier design. The flared front feet occur on Lancaster examples. 

Technical notes: Soft maple (right arm support, medial stretcher, right rear leg), oak (wedges in tenons), hickory (crest rail, long back spindle, second from right), yellow-poplar (seat, external portion of right hand-hold). 

Related examples: Santore 1987, p. 115; Evans 1996, p. 124, fig. 3–94, with similar flared feet. 

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.


ProvenanceLouis Guerineau Myers (1874–1932), New York; consigned to [American Art Association, Anderson Art Galleries, Louis G. Meyer Collection, New York, February 25, 1921, lot 481]; purchased by William C. Hogg (1875–1930), 1921; bequeathed to Miss Ima Hogg, 1930; Estate of Miss Ima Hogg, 1975; given to MFAH, 1979.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Armchair
c. 1770–1785
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, red oak, and hickory (both handholds are replacements made of ash)
B.79.204
Armchair
c. 1765–1775
Soft maple, white oak, hickory, and yellow-poplar
B.69.424
Armchair
Francis Trumble
c. 1760–1770
Yellow-poplar, ash, white oak, soft maple, and hickory (right stretcher is a replacement made of beech)
B.64.31
Armchair
c. 1790–1805
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, and hickory
B.69.435
Armchair
c. 1790–1800
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, and hickory
B.69.434
scan from file photograph
c. 1775–1785
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, and hickory
B.72.26
Armchair
c. 1790–1810
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, and hickory
B.69.415
Armchair
c. 1765–1770
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, ash, and hickory
B.69.413
scan from file photograph
c. 1820–1835
Maple, hickory, yellow-poplar, soft maple, and hard maple; original painted decoration
B.67.30.5,.6
Armchair
c. 1785–1795
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, oak, and ash
B.69.410
Side Chair
c. 1780–1800
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, and hickory
B.69.405
scan from file photograph
c. 1760–1815
Soft maple, hickory, yellow-poplar, and sweetgum
B.69.510.2