Easy Chair

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Easy Chair
Datec. 1750–1780
Possible placeProvidence, Rhode Island, United States
MediumSoft maple; birch and soft maple
Dimensions48 1/2 × 36 × 27 1/4 in. (123.2 × 91.4 × 69.2 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.66.1
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Queen Anne Bedroom
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

In 1757 George Washington received a shipment of English furniture that included “A Mahagoney easy Chair—on Casters coverd with ditto [yellow silk and worsted damask] and a Check Case.” In addition to a fine upholstery fabric, easy chairs typically had a durable slipcover that could be easily removed and cleaned. The Bayou Bend example’s loose-fitting reproduction cover suggests this practice.  This fine easy chair is also distinguished by its shell-carved knees.

Technical notes: Soft maple; birch (top of the wings), soft maple. The construction follows the standard eighteenth-century New England practice (see B.69.252).

Related examples: Downs 1952, no. 80. The Bayou Bend chair’s carved knees bear comparison with the carving on a high chest attributed to the cabinetmaker Grindal Rawson (1719–1803) of Providence (Monahon 1980, p. 134).

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.


ProvenanceR. Hanon, by September 17, 1962; [Ginsburg & Levy, New York, September 17, 1962–1966] [1]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1966; given to MFAH, 1966.

[1] Ginsburg & Levy noted the easy chair from the Winsor family of Providence, Rhode Island.
Exhibition History

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[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. 1715–1735
Soft maple, eastern white pine, hard maple, and birch
B.58.104
Easy Chair
c. 1780–1800
Mahogany; soft maple and birch
B.60.84
Easy Chair
c. 1730–1760
Black walnut and soft maple; soft maple, hard maple, beech, and sylvestris pine
B.69.252
Easy Chair
c. 1730–1800
Black walnut and soft maple; soft maple
B.59.95
Easy Chair
c. 1730–1775
Soft maple; soft maple, eastern white pine, and elm.
B.60.90
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
Armchair
c. 1700–1725
Soft maple; hard maple, birch, ash, poplar, aspen poplar or cottonwood
B.69.44
scan from file photograph
c. 1735–1800
Cherry and birch; soft maple
B.69.218
High Chair
c. 1780–1800
Soft maple, hickory, birch, basswood, beech, and white oak
B.61.83
Side Chair (one of a pair)
John Townsend
1800
Mahogany; birch, soft maple, eastern white pine, and poplar
B.66.11.1