With the Rococo’s assimilation, the contours of the easy chair evolved in response to the new fashion. The Late Baroque’s curvilinear seat frames became straight, tapering backward, while the rounded crest rail took on a serpentine shape. New England chairs retained their stretchers, while their New York and Philadelphia counterparts incorporated more substantial framing so that these unharmonious structural components were no longer deemed necessary.

Technical notes: Mahogany (front legs), soft maple (rear legs), birch (rear stretcher); soft maple (side seat rails), birch (front and rear seat rails). Since the frame retains its original webbing and sacking on the back and wings, it was not possible to sample the interior framework.

Related examples: Campbell 1975, p. 43; Heckscher 1985, p. 125, no. 73; Heckscher 1987a, pp. 97–98, fig. 83; Baumgarten 1993, pp. 5–6.

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.