- Great Chair
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The turned design of the spindles on the back of this great chair, with their arrowhead-shaped terminals, points to a Massachusetts provenance. Idiosyncrasies of the overall turnings, such as the upper rail, which in design does not match the other two horizontal rails, and variations in the turnings of the spindles have been thought to indicate replacement elements. However, consistency of wear, color, and finish history indicate that these elements are original. The inconsistencies of turning would then suggest that this chair is the product of either a rural craftsman or an urban maker of moderate skill.
Technical notes: Soft maple (right rear post, left middle spindle); ash (right seat rail), rush (replaced).
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.
ProvenanceBy tradition owned by Solomon Levy, Boston; [John Kenneth Byard (1905–1960), Silvermine, Norwalk, Connecticut]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, September 18, 1953; given to MFAH, prior to 1969.
Exhibition History
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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