High-back Windsor armchair

1890-1915

Measurements

41-1/4 in x 26 in x 25-3/4 in

Materials

Tulip poplar (seat), walnut (arms), unidentified hardwoods

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, The David Wilson Mansion, Inc.

Accession Number

1971.630

Inscription

According to an early accession record, a now very faded paper label on the underside of the seat reads, “Made after the chair / my father Daniel Corbit / used in his office / Odessa / M.C. Warner.”

Condition Notes

See “Comment” text.

Provenance

Ex coll. Mrs. E. Tatnall (Mary Corbit) Warner.

Comments

This high-back Windsor armchair displays many physical characteristics that separate it from similar chairs made in the 18th century.  Aside from the turning profiles of the stretchers, which have no 18th-century counterparts, the chair has only a light spindle underneath the handholds where it should have a more substantial and decoratively turned arm support.  The tops of the handholds are carved with shell-like rays—an anomaly in Windsor chairmaking, and the arms and handholds are not shaped properly, and the seams separating the arm-bow parts show that they are not made in the customary fashion. The crest rail is thicker than 18th century examples, and the volute ears are too deeply carved.  Last, the two wedges driven into the tops of the legs are crossed, as often done on sawn bench seats, rather than set in parallel as usual in Windsor chairs.  The chair has brown paint over a salmon base.  The brown paint has delaminated in many places.