On View
Not on viewGreat chair
Dateca. 1680
Terms
- Chairs
- Rush
- Ash
- Boston
- Charlestown
Dimensions119.29 × 60.91 × 45.69 cm (46 15/16 × 24 × 18 in.)
Credit LineGift of Mr. Russell H. Kettell
Object numberF1037
DescriptionGreat or Arm chair. Ash, rush. "Brewster" type arm chair with rush seat. Seat, lower legs and stretchers not original. Back posts and legs vertical above seat are turned with incised rings and bulb-like shapes. At top of front legs are flattened ball-shaped knobs. At top of back posts a ball, wide ring, narrow ring, and knob at top. Between back posts are four horizontal spindles, all turned. Between bottom three are two tiers of four vertical spindles with pointed ends. Arms consist of two turned horizontal spindles between which are single tiers of four small vertical spindles with pointed ends. Lower legs, where replaced, are plain. Two stretchers each on front and sides, one at bottom back. Stained or painted brown, replacements to match.
From 1996 catalogue: Such is the significance of this chair that it has been included in the catalogue despite the extent of the restoration it has experienced. The chair was converted to an easy chair about 1800. Some sort of crest or slat was nailed cross pre-flattened portions of the flames on the finials, and wings were nailed on the sides of the frame. The chair does not appear to have been stuffed, for no tacking evidence is present. However, the frame may have been drastically shortened in height at the time of the conversion, perhaps to accommodate rockers.
The original portions class this chair in a relatively small group of chairs with two tiers of spindles in the back and one tier of spindles under each arm. The key feature is the exact form of finial; this chair has finials that end in a plump, rounded flame, rather than a pointed one. Only a chair at Winterthur has the identical format (finials and spindles) based on a heavy scored urn with reel-like necking. In fact, this spindle form is extremely rare, for most chair spindles in this early style are vasiform. The Concord and Winterthur chairs are the only two published survivors from one particular phase of the entire turned chair tradition from seventeenth-century Boston or Charlestown.
From 1996 catalogue: Such is the significance of this chair that it has been included in the catalogue despite the extent of the restoration it has experienced. The chair was converted to an easy chair about 1800. Some sort of crest or slat was nailed cross pre-flattened portions of the flames on the finials, and wings were nailed on the sides of the frame. The chair does not appear to have been stuffed, for no tacking evidence is present. However, the frame may have been drastically shortened in height at the time of the conversion, perhaps to accommodate rockers.
The original portions class this chair in a relatively small group of chairs with two tiers of spindles in the back and one tier of spindles under each arm. The key feature is the exact form of finial; this chair has finials that end in a plump, rounded flame, rather than a pointed one. Only a chair at Winterthur has the identical format (finials and spindles) based on a heavy scored urn with reel-like necking. In fact, this spindle form is extremely rare, for most chair spindles in this early style are vasiform. The Concord and Winterthur chairs are the only two published survivors from one particular phase of the entire turned chair tradition from seventeenth-century Boston or Charlestown.
Collections
- Furniture
