Low-back Windsor armchair

1900-1940

Measurements

29-3/4 in x 28 in x 21-1/4

Materials

Tulip poplar* (seat and comb), oak* (all other parts)

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of H. Rodney Sharp

Accession Number

1958.3267

Condition Notes

See "Comments" below.  The outside of the left handhold has been repaired.  The right end of the comb has split and been repaired.

Provenance

Ex coll. H. Rodney Sharp

Comments

This low-back Windsor armchair is made in the style of Philadelphia examples of 1755 to 1775.  It has a D shaped seat, out-curving handholds, and legs with baluster turnings above a cylindrical section and ovoid feet.  The medial stretcher has ball-and-ring turnings.  It joins side stretchers at a swelling position slightly towards the rear legs.  The arms and rear comb are three separate pieces of wood.  Baluster-turned arm supports are in front of the fifteen spindles around the sitter.  Although these features are historically accurate, the turnings in particular depart from period practices in details and scale.  Other characteristics that suggest the chair was made later include wood-use, namely oak for all of the complex turnings, rather than maple, and the absence of tool marks, paint history, and oxidation on the underside of the seat.