The relatively large size of this great chair underscores its importance as an object of status in the seventeenth-century household. While basically a simple turned and joined form, the great chair derived its or­nament and distinctive differences from the variety of turnings chosen by the craftsman as he worked the members on his lathe. He often emphasized the termi­nation of the stiles with tall finials. Repe­tition of long ogee shapes, as seen here on the stiles and front posts, has been identified with chairs produced in the New Haven Colony. A Mannerist attenua­tion distinguishes the three vase-shaped spindles of the back.

Related examples: Kane 1973, p. 71, illus­trates a chair probably made by the same craftsman, along with other examples, pp. 75–77; Kirk 1967, no. 202; MMA (10.125.208). 

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.