This chair back, adapted from a design by Robert Manwaring, was espoused in Newport (B.57.71), Philadelphia, and New York, each varying it slightly. Roundabouts were fashioned with either turned columnar or cabriole arm supports, mirroring the legs’ contour. The unusual foliate carved knee ornament on this example, and a related easy chair, suggests they may have been produced en suite with a set of side chairs for General Philip Schuyler.

Technical notes: Mahogany; mahogany (corner blocks),  yellow pine (slip seat). The side and rear corner blocks are quarter round, with additional support below from protruding knee brackets. The arms abut over the central cabriole support and are capped by the crest rail.

Related examples: Other furniture with related carving include Rice 1962, p. 43; Sack 1969–72, vol. 5, p. 1148, no. P4039; Scherer 1984, p. 12, no. 9. 

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.