Armchair

1728-1740

Measurements

40-3/4 in x 24-1/4 in x 22-3/4 in

Materials

Birch* (front legs), cherry* (rear legs)

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, The David Wilson Mansion, Inc.

Accession Number

1971.603

Condition Notes

The armchair once had a rush seat.  The leather-upholstered seat was installed by Winterthur in the 1980s or early 1990s.  The left arm has a small walnut patch on the top of the left arm above the arm support.

Provenance

Bequest of Dr. and Mrs. J. Newberry Reynolds to The David Wilson Mansion, Inc., in 1942.

Comments

This armchair is a classic example of early use of cabriole front legs and a solid splat.  Boston-area features include the carved details of the yoked crest rail, the molded profile (in cross-section) of the rear stiles, the chamfered rear legs, and the turnings of the stretchers.  The sawn cabriole legs have scratch-beads along the edges.  The arms, with a high-arching profile snd volute hand-holds, rest atop boldly baluster-turned arm supports.

Bibliography

Nancy E. Richards and Nancy Goyne Evans, New England Furniture at Winterthur (Winterthur, Del.: The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1997), no. 5, pp, 12-13.

Joan Barzilay Freund and Leigh Keno, “The Making and Marketing of Boston Seating Furniture in the Late Baroque Style,” in American Furniture 1998, ed. Luke Beckerdite, 1-40 (Milwaukee, Wisc.:  The Chipstone Foundation 1998), p. 11.

Philip D. Zimmerman, “The ‘Boston Chairs’ of Mid-Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia,” in American Furniture 2009, ed. Luke Beckerdite, (Milwaukee, Wisc.:  The Chipstone Foundation, 2009), p. 148.