Windsor, the generic name given to utilitarian turned, stick, and bentwood seating furniture that had originated in England in the 1720s, first appeared in America in Philadelphia about a decade later. Production of high-back Windsors, the earliest form, began in the mid-1740s. While Philadelphia remained an important center, by the end of the century Windsor chairs were being produced all along the Atlantic seaboard. Definite regional traits evolved, occasionally in form, but more commonly in the design of the turned members. This example typifies the early Philadelphia high-back design, with its scrolled ears on the crest rail, elongate vase-turned arm supports, and distinctive combination of cylindrical and blunt arrow turnings in the lower section of the legs. The gently swelling medial stretcher design, which lacks the ball-and-ring turnings of the earliest examples, indicates that this example is slightly later. 

Technical notes: Soft maple (crest rail, turned arm supports, legs, and stretchers), yellow-poplar (seat), ash (arms), hickory (interior spindle).

Related examples: Evans 1996, p. 86, fig. 3–13; Santore 1981, p. 63, no. 29; RISD, an example of the related earlier type (Monkhouse and Michie 1986, p. 204, no. 145).

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.