The high-back type of Windsor first appeared in armchairs, and by about 1770 sets of side chairs began to be made. In this example, the high-back armchair form has, in the upper section, been reduced in scale to suit the intended function as a chair for use by a child at table. The added height is achieved by elongating the design of the legs’ vase turnings and tapering feet. The relative robustness at the base of the vase turnings allows for the application of a footrest. Except for cradles, specificity of form for use by a child is relatively rare in eighteenth-century furniture.

Technical notes: Soft maple (left front leg), hickory (center spindle), birch (right front leg, medial stretcher), basswood (seat), beech (right lower stretcher), white oak (crest rail, arms).

Related examples: For other examples of high chairs, see Santore 1987, pp. 209–12, figs. 225–30. For related Connecticut comb-back armchairs, see Santore 1987, pp. 56, 57, figs. 23–25. Evans 1996 illustrates a Rhode Island bow-back armchair with similarly turned arm supports (p. 283, fig. 6–91).

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.