Armchair

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Armchair
Datec. 1730–1790
Possible placeBoston, Massachusetts, United States
Possible placeMassachusetts, United States
MediumSoft maple and ash; rush
Dimensions45 1/4 × 25 1/4 × 21 3/4 in. (114.9 × 64.1 × 55.2 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.20.1
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Kilroy Center
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

This banister-back armchair represents a type that was produced throughout New England (see B.68.3) over a long period. Combining elements of both the Early and Late Baroque styles, with its earlier turned legs and stretchers and later yoke crest and vase-shaped banister, this type of chair is ultimately derived from the leather-bottomed and caned chairs produced in Boston in the 1730s (see B.61.40). When a less expensive bottom was desired, or in rural areas that had no upholsterers, the rush bottom was substituted. The extremely slender banister or splat signals a chair of Connecticut origin. The double vase-turned side stretchers are unusual.

Technical notes: Soft: maple, ash (stretchers); rush (replaced). The front feet are replacements.

Related examples: A set of one armchair and four side chairs at MMA (Davidson and Stillinger 1985, p. III); advertisement of Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Blum (Antiques 107 [June 1975]: p. 1026); Mabel Brady Garvan Collection (Kane 1976, pp. 93–6); Concord Museum, Massachusetts (Wood 1996, p. 73, no. 31). A more sophisticated slip-seated, cabriole-leg example is at Chipstone (Rodriguez Roque 1984, no. 76). A set of seven side chairs and one armchair was advertised by John S. Walton (Antiques 125 [May 1984], p. 926).

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.


Provenance[Collings and Collings, New York]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1920; given to MFAH, by 1966.
Exhibition History

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Armchair
c. 1700–1725
Soft maple; hard maple, birch, ash, poplar, aspen poplar or cottonwood
B.69.44
Side Chair
c. 1730–1800
Possibly maple, rush
B.76.168
Armchair
c. 1700–1725
Soft maple, ash, poplar, and hickory
B.69.54
Armchair
c. 1790–1800
Eastern white pine, soft maple, white oak, mahogany, and ash. Old but not original green paint.
B.69.411
Armchair
c. 1785–1795
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, oak, and ash
B.69.410
Armchair
c. 1770–1785
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, red oak, and hickory (both handholds are replacements made of ash)
B.79.204
Armchair
c. 1790–1810
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, elm, ash, birch, and beech
B.69.422
Armchair
c. 1785–1800
Soft maple, white oak, ash, and hickory
B.69.423
Armchair
c. 1700–1730
Soft maple, ash, and poplar
B.58.106
Armchair
c. 1735–1790
Soft maple and birch; ash
B.68.3
Armchair
c. 1765–1770
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, ash, and hickory
B.69.413
Armchair
Francis Trumble
c. 1760–1770
Yellow-poplar, ash, white oak, soft maple, and hickory (right stretcher is a replacement made of beech)
B.64.31