This armchair with arched crest and vase-shaped splat, referred to as banister-back in the period, represents the most stylish variant of the Philadelphia crookt-foot chairs (see B.66.24). These banister-back armchairs bear certain analogies to maple rush-bottom banister-back armchairs produced in New England, and it may be that they reflect the presence in Philadelphia of imported Boston-made chairs. The molded, vertically curved arms and ball-and-ring stretcher certainly reflect New England design (see B.20.1 and B.68.3). Related Philadelphia chairs with characteristic flat arms bear the label of William Savery (1721/22–1787), who early in his career worked with Soloman Fussell. However, this example differs from the Savery chairs in several important details beyond the New England-style arm and front stretcher features. It has turned single side stretchers that swell gently at the center and have cone-shaped terminals, unlike the Savery arrangement of double unornamented stretchers, and the vase-shaped turnings of the arm supports are shorter than those found on Savery’s armchairs.

Technical notes: Soft maple; red oak (rear interior seat rail), soft maple (front and left interior seat rails), rush (replaced).

Related examples: Winterthur (Forman 1980, p. 62); Wright’s Ferry Mansion, Columbia, Pennsylvania (Zimmerman 1996, p. 736, pls. I, la).

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.