Side chair

1750-1785

Measurements

39-1/8 in x 21-1/4 in x 21 in

Materials

Walnut; hard pine slip seat

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of H. Rodney Sharp

Accession Number

1958.3254.4

Inscription

“VI” is chiseled into the front seat rabbet; "IIII" is chiseled into the slip seat.

Condition Notes

The black horsehair slip seat is original; the slip seat upholstered in red is a replacement.  All of the corner blocks inside the seat frame are replacements.  The inside end of the left rear foot has a triangular repair.

Provenance

Ex coll. H. Rodney Sharp . When owned by Sharp, this chair was one of a set of four; three others were deaccessioned and sold several decades ago.

Comments

This side chair displays numerous features of basic seating in the Philadelphia region.  Refinements include the trifid feet, undercut seat rails, through-tenons, rounded rear legs (oval in cross-section), serpentine crest rail, and eared splat.  The absence of molding along the top edge of the seat rails is one of the few departures from simpler seating made in Philadelphia.