Side Chair

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Side Chair
Datec. 1720–1750
Possible placeBoston, Massachusetts, United States
MediumPainted poplar, soft maple, black ash, elm, and white oak
Dimensions47 3/4 × 19 × 18 3/8 in. (121.3 × 48.3 × 46.7 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.69.46
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

This type of chair, with turned banisters for back slats, represented an easily pro­duced, less expensive variant on leather and cane-backed chairs. Often made in sets, these chairs were widely produced over a long period of time throughout New England.


Technical notes: B.69.46, painted poplar (legs), soft maple (crest rail), black ash (front stretcher, left seat rail, banisters, stay rail), elm (left stretcher), white oak (front seat rail); B.69.47, various woods, materials not ana­lyzed microscopically.


Related examples: MMA (acc. nos. 10.125.218; 52.195.8, .9); Concord Museum, Massachusetts (Wood 1996, p. 63, no. 26); Jobe et al. 1991, pp. 70, 72, fig. 21.


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.



Provenance[Israel Sack, New York]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1954; given to MFAH, prior to 1969.
Exhibition History

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Easy Chair
c. 1740–1795
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Side Chair
c. 1700–1725
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c. 1790–1810
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, elm, ash, birch, and beech
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Joseph Meeks & Sons
c. 1825–1835
Gilded mahogany and mahogany veneer; white oak, soft maple, ash, eastern white pine, and yellow-poplar
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Francis Trumble
c. 1760–1770
Yellow-poplar, ash, white oak, soft maple, and hickory (right stretcher is a replacement made of beech)
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Easy Chair
c. 1730–1775
Soft maple; soft maple, eastern white pine, and elm.
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Side Chair
Thomas Seymour
c. 1819–1825
Mahogany; ash, soft maple, mahogany, and white oak
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Square Piano
Gibson & Davis
c. 1810–1815
Painted and gilded mahogany, mahogany veneer, satinwood, soft maple, and holly; yellow-poplar, holly, beech, basswood, cherry, soft maple, eastern white pine, hemlock, mahogany, and ash
B.57.4
Great Chair
Ephraim Tinkham, II
c. 1675–1690
Ash, white oak, and soft maple
B.56.4
Writing-arm Chair
Ebenezer Tracy
c. 1770–1803
Eastern white pine, yellow-poplar, soft maple, white oak, chestnut, and butternut
B.69.409
Armchair
c. 1785–1795
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, oak, and ash
B.69.410
Armchair
c. 1770–1785
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, red oak, and hickory (both handholds are replacements made of ash)
B.79.204