The design of this banister-back armchair presents contradictions. While it displays a foliate scrolled crest and scrolled arm terminals somewhat bolder than the norm, as well as turned stiles and banis­ters crisp in profile, the juncture of the upwardly raked arms with the turned section of the stiles is awkward, and the turnings of the lower section are more schematic.

Technical notes: Soft maple (crest rail, right arm), ash (front seat rail, center banister, front stretcher), poplar (right rear post). There are four compass circles containing six-point arcs on the skirt of one long side, one trun­cated by the joint with the leg.

Related examples: B.69.54 has similar double-ball feet and tapering columnar arm supports, as opposed to vase turnings, as does an example at MFA, Boston (Randall 1965, no. 125).

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.