Francis Trumble
Armchair

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Armchair
Datec. 1760–1770
Made inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
MediumYellow-poplar, ash, white oak, soft maple, and hickory (right stretcher is a replacement made of beech)
Dimensions28 3/8 × 27 × 21 3/4 in. (72.1 × 68.6 × 55.2 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.64.31
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Kilroy Center
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

The low-back Windsor armchair, an English form derived from the corner chair, first appeared in Philadelphia around the mid-eighteenth century, and that city produced the majority of low-back Windsors as well. These chairs, which relate to the high-backs in overall design, are made with a back rail that overlaps the ends of the arms, adding strength. This crisply turned example has the typical early Philadelphia form of leg and its ball-shaped foot, but the gently swelling stretcher is indicative of a slightly later design. The thick arms with rounded upper edges, an unusual feature, are also seen on a sophisticated cabriole-legged, high-back example. 

Technical notes: Yellow-poplar (seat), ash (legs, arm supports, spindles), white oak (arm crest), soft maple (stretchers, spindles), hickory (spindles). The right stretcher is a replacement made of beech. 

Related examples: Evans 1996, p. 87, fig. 3–14; Santore 1981, p. 79, no. 61.

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.



Provenance[Ginsburg & Levy, New York]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, October 21, 1964; given to MFAH, by 1966.
Exhibition History

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Armchair
c. 1770–1785
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, red oak, and hickory (both handholds are replacements made of ash)
B.79.204
Armchair
c. 1765–1775
Soft maple, white oak, hickory, and yellow-poplar
B.69.424
Armchair
c. 1795–1815
Soft maple, oak, hickory, and yellow-poplar
B.79.205
Armchair
c. 1765–1770
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, ash, and hickory
B.69.413
Armchair
c. 1790–1810
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, elm, ash, birch, and beech
B.69.422
Square Piano
Gibson & Davis
c. 1810–1815
Painted and gilded mahogany, mahogany veneer, satinwood, soft maple, and holly; yellow-poplar, holly, beech, basswood, cherry, soft maple, eastern white pine, hemlock, mahogany, and ash
B.57.4
Sideboard
Joseph Meeks & Sons
c. 1825–1835
Gilded mahogany and mahogany veneer; white oak, soft maple, ash, eastern white pine, and yellow-poplar
B.67.6
Armchair
c. 1785–1800
Soft maple, white oak, ash, and hickory
B.69.423
Easy Chair
c. 1740–1795
Black walnut; white oak, soft maple, ash, and yellow-poplar
B.69.31
High Chair
c. 1780–1800
Soft maple, hickory, birch, basswood, beech, and white oak
B.61.83
Armchair
c. 1785–1795
Yellow-poplar, soft maple, oak, and ash
B.69.410
Armchair
c. 1700–1725
Soft maple, ash, poplar, and hickory
B.69.54