Slat-back Windsor armchair with a tablet

1810-1820

Maker

Attributed to William Lee (working 1807-1824)

Measurements

32-5/8 in x 20-1/2 in x 21-3/4 in

Materials

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

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of Sara Corbit Reese Pryor

Accession Number

2004.22

Inscription

“WINDSOR ARMCHAIR / with / CARTOUCHE RAIL / Bequested to Corbit House/Odessa” is written onto a paper label attached to the underside of the seat.  The inscription is very faded.

Condition Notes

The chair has been stripped of all paint.

Comments

A wide, shaped tablet tenoned into the tops of the rear posts decorates this Windsor armchair, in addition to bamboo turnings throughout.  The shape of the tablet, being a large rectangle with hollowed corners, is very unusual.  To date, the only documented chair with this distinctive decoration is a side chair at Winterthur (accession no. 73.381) bearing the label of William Lee of Philadelphia, the likely maker of this armchair too.  (See Evans, American Windsor Chairs, 138-39, fig. 3-127.)

As with many Windsors of the second and later decades of the 19th century, the four legs are socketed into the seat but do not penetrate through it.  In contrast, the arm supports and rear posts do penetrate the shield-shaped seat and are wedged in place from below.  The back has seven spindles, and there are two spindles under each arm.