In contrast with the “vase-back” chair and its profusion of ornament (B.69.378.1–.2), these side chairs present a more restrained interpretation. The London Chair-Makers’ and Carvers’ Book of Prices for Workmanship for 1802 describes chairs such as these as a “Square back with elliptic cornered top containing a tablet.” The design is purely linear, the only hint of classicism found in the columnarlike reeding that relieves the front legs, stiles, and diagonal slats. The execution of the latter, most typical of New York chairmaking, is otherwise unknown in New England. However, the secondary woods and related examples with a provenance recommend Boston or one of its outlying communities, Charlestown, Dorchester Lower Mills, or Roxbury, as their place of origin.

Technical notes: Mahogany, unidentified inlay; soft maple (seat rails), yellow-poplar (corner blocks). The crest rail tablet and the back’s corner joints are further accentuated by a dark line inlay. Each vertical splat is fashioned out of a single piece of wood. The corner blocks are triangular. The decorative tacking reproduces the original pattern. On the seat rails of several chairs is written: “H. R. Hill.”

Related examples: Hipkiss 1941, pp. 176–77, no. 114; Randall 1965, pp. 214–15, no. 174; Sack 1969–92, vol. 2, p. 421, no. 1061. Variations include Montgomery 1966b, pp. 84–85, no. 26; Sack 1969–92, vol. 8, p. 2215, no. P5609.

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.