The term “lolling chair” suggests an informal piece of seating furniture for repose. This impression, however, is belied by its domestic placement and implied expense; contemporary inventories typically record them as pairs and confirm their use in both parlors and bedchambers. This superb chair, with its contrasting birch veneers, sinuous arms, and delicately turned legs and arm supports, the latter essentially a mirror image, belongs to a distinguished group assigned to Portsmouth.

Technical notes: Mahogany, birch (veneers); birch (seat rails), eastern white pine (corner blocks). Rear legs spliced to stiles. Triangular corner blocks. The present upholstery reproduces the original tacking.

Related examples: Montgomery and Kane 1976, pp. 178, 298–99, no. 132; Flanigan 1986, pp. 142–43, no. 52; Jobe et al. 1991, pp. 219–20, no. 84; Jobe et al. 1993, pp. 367–72, nos. 102, 102A, 103, 103A, 103B. Related also are a group of sofas: Montgomery 1966b, pp. 303–4, 306–7, nos. 268, 271, 272; Garvin, Garvin, and Page 1979. pp. 40–41, no. 10; Jobe et al. 1993, pp. 378–81, nos. 105, 106, 106b.

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.