The striking individuality evident in Connecticut’s eighteenth-century furniture affirms that it was a crossroads of design, its craftsmen’s work influenced by their Boston, Newport, New York, and Philadelphia counterparts. Some artisans trained outside Connecticut, and on their return they introduced the regional designs and construction techniques learned during their apprenticeships. The Bayou Bend side chair, while derived from the classic New England pattern, substitutes a more complex banister, one also present in Philadelphia chairs (see B.69.66, B.69.65), and a singular stretcher arrangement, presumably patterned after an English model.

Technical notes: Cherry, birch (side seat rails): soft maple (slip seat). The construction is typical of New England chairs from this period (see B.57.75). The chair retains its original upholstery foundation. The front seat rail and slip seat are incised X.

Related examples: Best known within this group are chairs purportedly made for Connecticut Governors Gurdon Saltonstall (1666–1724) of Branford and Norwich and William Pitkin (1694–1769) of East Hartford, although the former’s date of death predates the style’s introduction (Trent and Nelson 1985, pp. 68–69, 72–73, nos. 12,14). Another example is inscribed “Cheney,” which has been interpreted as either the mark of East Hartford joiner Benjamin Cheney (c. 1698–1760) or as referring to an early owner (Ward and Hosley 1985, p. 236, no. 118; Trent and Nelson 1985, p. 76–77, no. 16). For other examples, see Antiques 125 (January 1984), p. 253; Trent and Nelson 1985, pp. 67–75, nos. 12, 14–15. Similar chairs exhibiting a range of banister patterns are recorded in Ward and Hosley 1985, p. 236, no. 118.

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.