Slat-back Windsor armchair

1810-1820

Maker

Jared Chesnut (working 1800-1837)

Measurements

33-1/2 in x 21-5/8 in x 21-1/2 in

Materials

Tulip poplar (seat), maple (legs, arm supports, and arms), oak (crest), hickory (rear posts and spindles)

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation

Accession Number

1980.7

Inscription

“J . CHESNUT / WILMINGTON / DEL.” is stamped into the underside of the seat.

Provenance

The chair was purchased in 1979 from antiques dealer G. W. Thomas of Middletown, Delaware, for use in the Wilson-Warner House.

Comments

Period terminology associated with this type of Windsor incorporates the slat, or crest rail, at the top of the back into which the five spindles are socketed.  The slat rises in the middle in a tablet shape.  The middle spindle has an oval medallion in the center, a feature that Windsor chair historian Nancy Goyne Evans says Chesnut may have copied from Baltimore prototypes (see Evans, American Windsor Chairs [1996], pp. 176-7).  The rear posts, spindles, and legs are bamboo-turned.  As with other chairs by this maker (e.g., see acc. no. 1979.112), the stretchers are arranged in a box configuration, and not with a medial stretcher.  The finish is a dark varnish or other clear finish.