Side Chair

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Side Chair
Datec. 1785–1820
Made inNew York , New York, United States
MediumMahogany; with ash, black cherry, eastern white pine
Dimensions36 × 21 1/2 × 20 1/2 in. (91.4 × 54.6 × 52.1 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.64.9.4
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Bayou Bend Dining Room
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

One reliable form of identifying regional preferences during the Neoclassical period is through chair backs. This particular pattern, derived from Thomas Sheraton’s Drawing-Book, must have been among the most popular in New York, judging by the number of known examples. Within nine years of Sheraton’s publication, the design appeared in the 1802 price book as “A Square Back Chair, No. IV.” It defines the basic model, such as Bayou Bend’s, as composed of “A drapery bannister, with a feather top; a splatt on each side, to form an arch with the top rail; bannister and splatts pierc’d; sweep stay and top rail, with a break in ditto; sweep seat rails, for stuffing over ditto; plain taper’d legs.”

Technical notes: Mahogany; ash (seat rails), eastern white pine (corner blocks), black cherry (medial braces). The back is composed of a crest rail, a stay rail, and three vertical splats. The seat frame is assembled with two medial braces and rounded corner blocks. Slight variations between the chairs may reflect the work of several craftsmen within the same shop, or from more than one establishment, or that the group is assembled of chairs from more than one set.

Related examples: New York chairs include Hipkiss 1941, pp. 170–71, no. 107; Miller 1956, pp. 57–58, no. 87, Rice 1962, p. 46; Randall 1965, pp. 214–16, no. 175; Montgomery 1966b, pp. 110–12, nos. 58, 60; White House 1975, pp. 122, 125, 146–47; Bishop 1972, p. 228, no. 327; Fales 1976, p. 77, no. 141; Kane 1976, pp. 167–68, no. 146; Butler 1983, p. 59, no. 51. Chairs documented to the shop of Norfolk, Virginia, cabinetmaker James Woodward (d. 1839) incorporate the same pattern and suggest the range of its popularity (Venable 1989, pp. 74–77, no. 35) and to the Troy partnership of Graff and Hayden at the PMA (acc. no. 1995.80.1).

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.


ProvenanceMeyers-Peters family, Montclair, New Jersey; [Israel Sack, Inc., New York]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1964, given to MFAH, by 1966.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Image of B.60.37.2, representative of set
c. 1785–1820
Mahogany; eastern white pine, ash, red oak, sweetgum, and black cherry
B.60.37.2
Image of B.60.37.2, representative of set
c. 1785–1820
Mahogany; eastern white pine, ash, red oak, sweetgum, and black cherry
B.60.37.3
Image of B.60.37.2, representative of set
c. 1785–1820
Mahogany; eastern white pine, ash, red oak, sweetgum, and black cherry
B.60.37.4
Side Chair
c. 1785–1820
Mahogany; with ash, black cherry, eastern white pine
B.64.9.1
Side Chair
c. 1785–1820
Mahogany; with ash, black cherry, eastern white pine
B.64.9.2
Side Chair
c. 1785–1820
Mahogany; with ash, black cherry, eastern white pine
B.64.9.3
Image of B.60.37.2, representative of set
c. 1785–1820
Mahogany; eastern white pine, ash, red oak, sweetgum, and black cherry
B.60.37.6
Image of B.60.37.2, representative of set
c. 1785–1820
Mahogany; eastern white pine, ash, red oak, sweetgum, and black cherry
B.60.37.7
Image of B.60.37.2, representative of set
c. 1785–1820
Mahogany; eastern white pine, ash, red oak, sweetgum, and black cherry
B.60.37.8
Card Table
c. 1820–1830
Grained, painted, and gilded mahogany, and birch; mahogany veneer on eastern white pine with black walnut banding, ash, eastern white pine, cherry, and original brass casters
B.68.31
Armchair
c. 1785–1820
Mahogany; eastern white pine, ash, red oak, sweetgum, and black cherry
B.60.37.1
Armchair
c. 1785–1820
Mahogany; eastern white pine, ash, red oak, sweetgum, and black cherry
B.60.37.5