While small joined stools were a com­mon form of seating furniture in the sev­enteenth and early eighteenth centuries, few survive today. This example is made with relatively light turned legs ornamented with paired vases in the manner of gate-leg tables of the Early Baroque style. That feature and the use of maple suggest a late date for this stool. Although the turnings are somewhat simple, the maker has shown some interest in detail with the double rings at the center of the paired vases and the thumbnail molding of the top, skirt, and stretchers.

Related examples: Nutting 1962, nos. 2725, 2731; Pendleton Collection, RISD (Monkhouse and Michie 1986, no. 82).

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.