Easy chair

1790-1810

Measurements

46 in x 32 in x 31 in

Materials

Mahogany; white pine (where visible)

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of H. Rodney Sharp

Accession Number

1958.3278

Provenance

Ex coll. H. Rodney Sharp

Comments

The easy chair has the general shape and secondary woods of other examples thought to have been made in Massachusetts.  The legs on this chair taper slightly, which represent one of its latest features.  The chair preserves the original framework to support a chamber pot underneath the slip seat.  Later "chamber chairs" of this stylish sort, i.e., those made after about 1810, had sliders built into the chamber pot framework that allowed the pot to be accessed for cleaning from behind the chair and without disturbing the slip-seat cover.

This chair is upholstered in a green plain-woven wool, which is an accurate covering for such a chair.  A related easy chair at Historic Odessa (accession no. 1986.11) retains a small strip of its original upholstery, published as fig. 56 in Philip D. Zimmerman, A Storied Past: Collections of Historic Odessa (Odessa, DE:  Historic Odessa Foundation, 2023), 101.

Bibliography

Zimmerman, A Storied Past

Philip D. Zimmerman, A Storied Past: Collections of Historic Odessa (Odessa, DE:  Historic Odessa Foundation, 2023), 100.