Side chair (one of a set of three)

1750-1775

Measurements

39-3/8 in x 21-1/4 in x 20 in

Materials

Walnut; hard pine slip seat

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of H. Rodney Sharp.

Accession Number

1959.3254

Inscription

1959.3254.1 is chair "V" with slip seat "V"

1959.3254.2 is chair "VI" with slip seat "III"

1959.3254.3 is chair "I" with slip seat "IIII"

“Deming”(?) is written in pencil on slip seats III and V.

Condition Notes

1959.3254.1:  The corner blocks appear to be replacements.  Both knee brackets on the right front leg are replacements

1959.3254.2:  The front of the crest rail and rear of the shoe have repairs where they once split out.  The splat appears to be original.  The rear corner blocks are replacements.

1959.3254.3:  The corner blocks are replacements.

Provenance

Ex coll. H. Rodney Sharp

Comments

This side chair (acc. no. 1959.3254.3 is photographed) is probably originally from a set of six, given the chair number "VI" on one chair.  The chair displays numerous features of the Philadelphia region.  Refinements include the trifid feet, undercut seat rails, through-tenons, rounded rear legs (slightly 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 this kind of seating made in Philadelphia.

When sold to Rodney Sharp, this set of three chairs was accompanied by a fourth (1959.3254.4).  Although no bill of sale survives to detail the four chairs, the fourth chair appears to have been faked to create a set of four.  See acc. no. 1959.3254.4.