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Side Chair

Side Chair

Public Domain

Side Chair
MakerAmerican, born Scotland, 1728–1808
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Side Chair
Datec. 1755–1775
Made inBoston, Massachusetts, United States
MediumMahogany; soft maple and red oak
Dimensions37 1/2 × 24 1/2 × 22 3/4 in. (95.3 × 62.2 × 57.8 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, museum purchase funded by the Theta Charity Antiques Show and the Lora Jean Kilroy Accession Endowment
Object numberB.2017.18
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Chippendale Bedroom
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
DescriptionWith its well-carved ornamentation and close similarities to English examples, this side chair exhibits the epitome of the eighteenth-century Boston carver’s craft. It is distinguished for its old surface and especially for its hairy-paw feet, a great rarity in American furniture. Reserved for exceptionally fine pieces, the hairy-paw feet are nearly identical to English examples and are quite unusual in Massachusetts furniture. Even more, it is an exceptional work of two craftsmen: a chairmaker that recent scholarship identifies as Scottish immigrant craftsman James Graham (1728–1808) and an unidentified carver, whose design closely followed English prototypes. Its design is a virtual copy of several known English chairs, two of which have histories in the Boston area. This side chair was originally part of a set of at least ten that, according to the family history associated with two examples, was made for Moses Gill (1734–1800), a Massachusetts lieutenant governor.
ProvenanceProbably Moses Gill (1733–1800), Massachusetts lieutenant governor, Boston and Princeton, Massachusetts; by descent in the Lazell and Mitchell families, Bridgewater, Massachusetts; […]; private owner, purchased at a sale in Weston, Massachusetts; consigned to Christie’s, New York, January 15, 1999, lot 701; purchased by private owner; consigned for private sale to Christie’s, New York; purchased by MFAH, 2017.
Exhibition History"Theta Charity Antiques Show," George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, November 14–19, 2018.
Published References Luke Beckerdite, “Practices in Eighteenth-Century Boston,” in New England Furniture: Essays in Memory of Benno M. Forman (Boston: Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1987), pp. 123–124. Jonathan L. Fairbanks, Paul Revere’s Boston, 1735–1818: [Exhibition, April 18–October 12, 1975] (Boston: Department of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture, Museum of Fine Arts, 1975), cat. 53, 54, pp. 50–51. Courtney Leigh Harris, “An English Chair in Boston,” Antiques & Fine Art (Winter 2017): 122–124. Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, American Furniture at Chipstone (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984), cat. 58, p. 134. Kemble Widmer, “A Scotsman, Thomas Chippendale, and the Green Dragon Tavern,” in Brock Jobe, Gerald W. R. Ward, and Lynn McCarthy, Boston Furniture, 1700–1900 (Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, distributed by the University of Virginia Press, 2016), pp. 127–149. Widmer’s article is the most recent scholarship on a large group of furniture, including this chair, that he attributes to Scottish immigrant cabinetmaker James Graham (1728–1808). Widmer examines in detail the construction and carving techniques shared among the group and relates them to British practices that would have been well known to a craftsman trained in that tradition. Mary Ellen Hayward Yehia, “Ornamental Carving on Boston Furniture of the Chippendale Style,” in Boston Furniture of the Eighteenth Century: A Conference Held by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 11 and 12 May 1972 (Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1974), pp. 201–204. Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
Numbered “V” on rear rail and “X” on slip-seat frame

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Image of B.60.37.2, representative of set
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Mahogany; eastern white pine, ash, red oak, sweetgum, and black cherry
B.60.37.8
Image of B.60.37.2, representative of set
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B.60.37.2
Image of B.60.37.2, representative of set
Unknown American
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Mahogany; eastern white pine, ash, red oak, sweetgum, and black cherry
B.60.37.3
Image of B.60.37.2, representative of set
Unknown American
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c. 1785–1820
Mahogany; eastern white pine, ash, red oak, sweetgum, and black cherry
B.60.37.4
James Graham