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.