Reverse ciphers introduced a novel device for ornamenting and personalizing silver during the Late Baroque period in England and America (see B.69.100). Ironically, by the early 1750s, as their application on silver began to diminish, ciphers were becoming fashionable on furniture. The Bayou Bend chair represents the singular instance of an American craftsman embracing this vogue. A specific precedent for its carefully delineated cipher is not known in furniture, silver, or among published designs. In other respects, this side chair embodies the New York interpretation of the Late Baroque. Its generous proportions disclose a closer affinity with English design than with its New England or Philadelphia counterpart.

Technical notes: Mahogany, beech (rear seat rail); cherry (slip seat), eastern white pine (front and rear comer blocks, diagonal brace), yellow-poplar (left front corner block). The seat is constructed with corner cross braces, a technique more prevalent in English furniture. The front corner blocks are a combination of polygonal shapes lapping triangular blocks. The rear seat rail brackets and the stiles’ lower interior curves are applied, the latter derived from the exteriors in a manner consistent with New York craftsmanship. Labeled: on the seat frame, “Jack Wainwright”; on the slip seat, III.

Related examples: Originally a set of eight; four others are in public collections: Hummel 1970–71, pt. 2, pp. 904, 906; Kane 1976, pp. 81–82, no. 61; Naeve 1978, p. 9, no. 10; Hawley 1989, pp. 326–31. Other publications citing these chairs are: Downs 1951, p. 47; Hanks 1972; Art News 51 (November 1952), p. 10; Antiques 64 (August 1953), p. 78; Antiques 99 (January 1971), p. 4; Antiques 101 (February 1972), p. 314; Kirk 1972a, pp. 423–24; Kirk 1972b, p. 112; Kane 1980, p. 1316; Colonial Homes 10 (May–June 1984), p. 123.

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.