Side Chair (one of a pair)

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Side Chair (one of a pair)
Datec. 1735–1765
Possible placeRhode Island, United States
Probable placeMassachusetts, United States
MediumBlack walnut and soft maple
Dimensions41 3/4 × 22 × 21 1/8 in. (106 × 55.9 × 53.7 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.60.31.1
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Queen Anne Bedroom
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

These superb chairs are among the most accomplished expressions of Late Baroque New England seating furniture. Their overall form is akin to the standard pattern (see B.69.247.1); however, a series of refinements sets them apart. These details include the flat, curvilinear stretchers, molded C-scrolls and lambrequins on the knees, and scalloped seat rails on the front and sides. Previously, they were attributed to Newport, but scholarship and visual evidence, such as John Singleton Copley’s portrait of the Boston merchant John Barrett delineating similar ornament on his chair, support a Boston attribution.

Technical notes: Black walnut, soft maple (rear seat rail, stretcher); soft maple (slip seat). The construction is typical of New England chairs from this period (see B.57.75). Period English needlework was adapted for the seats. The front seat rail of B.60.31.1 is incised V, its slip seat, III, while the corresponding elements on B.60.31.2 are marked IIII.

Related examples: The closest published examples are Downs 1952, no. 110; Sack 1969–92, vol. 3, p. 607, no. 1381; Randall 1965, pp. 170–71, no. 133.

Book excerpt: Warren, David B., 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.


ProvenanceHerbert Lawton, Boston; consigned to [American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, April 3, 1937, sale 4314, lot 392]; […] [Israel Sack, New York]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1960; given to MFAH, by 1966.
Exhibition History

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
Front seat rail incised V
Slip seat incised III

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Side Chair (one of a pair)
c. 1735–1765
Black walnut and soft maple
B.60.31.2
Side Chair
c. 1740–1760
Black walnut; soft maple
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scan from file photograph
c. 1730–1775
Black walnut; black walnut and southern yellow pine
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scan from file photograph
c.1730–1800, decoration added c. 1800–1843
Black walnut; soft maple and eastern white pine
B.69.247.2
Side Chair (one of a pair)
c. 1730–1800, decoration added c. 1800–1843
Black walnut; soft maple and eastern white pine
B.69.247.1
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c. 1730–1760
Black walnut and soft maple; soft maple, hard maple, beech, and sylvestris pine
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Pair of Side Chairs
Johann Michael Jahn
c. 1860
Black walnut and cane
B.2007.13.1,.2
Side Chair
c. 1745–1795
Black walnut; southern yellow pine
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c. 1750–1795
Mahogany; eastern white pine
B.2000.16
scan from file photograph
c. 1735–1795
Black walnut; black walnut and southern yellow pine
B.69.66
Side Chair
c. 1735–1795
Black walnut; black walnut and southern yellow pine
B.69.246
Side Chair
late 17th century
Walnut
94.1059