The Neoclassical lolling chair is a singular form of American seating furniture produced only in New England. It evolved from Late Baroque and Rococo examples, often retaining the serpentine crest rail and set-back arm supports, but its overall proportions lack the breadth of its predecessors. The form was updated simply by the substitution of tapered or turned legs, arm supports extending to meet the front legs, and unupholstered wooden armrests. Here the unusual coupling of mahogany arms with mahoganized black cherry legs and stretchers prompts a rural attribution.

Technical notes: Mahogany (medial stretcher, arms), black cherry (legs, side and back stretchers, originally stained to resemble mahogany); soft maple (right seat rail), ash (remaining seat rails). The back frame was not sampled. The original tacking pattern is reproduced.

Related examples: The arm supports are reminiscent of those for a chair in Montgomery 1966b, p. 158, no. 107.

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.