High-back Windsor armchair

1760-1780

Measurements

44-3/4 in x 26 in x 24-1/2 in

Materials

Tulip poplar* (seat, side stretchers), white oak* (comb or crest), hickory* (spindles and arm-rail), maple* (arm supports, legs, and medial stretcher)

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of H. Rodney Sharp

Accession Number

1958.3263

Condition Notes

The crest rail has a replaced section between the right ear and the mid-line.  The inside of the knuckle on each handhold is repaired. The dark green paint is modern. No earlier paint colors are detectable.

Provenance

Ex coll. H. Rodney Sharp

Comments

This high-back Windsor armchair, with a D shaped seat and volute-eared crest rail, has a complex ring-and-ball turned medial stretcher combined with baluster-turned legs with plain tapers below.  Typically, early ring-and-ball stretchers accompanied legs with “blunt arrow” feet. Those with legs such as this chair usually had a stretcher with a single swelled center and rings towards to the sides. It is possible that the medial stretcher is a replacement, although to add further mystery, microanalysis of the side stretchers revealed them to be made of tulip poplar, which is not a wood typically used for turning.  The absence of any original paint history further confounds identification of original parts and possible subsequent changes.  The handholds are boldly carved and display the usual lamination along the outer sides where the arm increased in thickness.