On View
Not on viewSide Chairs
Date1820-1840
Terms
- Side Chairs
- Gilt
- Rush
- Maple
- Paint
- Eastern Massachusetts
Dimensions86.29 × 43.15 × 38.07 cm (34 × 17 × 15 in.)
Credit LineGift of Cummings E. Davis (1886)
Object numberTH23B
DescriptionPair of side chairs (Th23a,b). Grain-painted maple, gilt and stenciled; painted rush seat. Chair with stencil decoration. Late Sheraton chair, so-called Hitchcock style. See also matching pair of chairs, F1504, F1505 (different provenance).Matching sets of chairs, arrayed against the walls when not in use and drawn up to the table at meal times, had been part of Concord's more affluent households since the 17th century. By the time these chairs were made, sets of fashionable chairs had been made more affordable by the application of a variety of strategies to their manufacture. Production of these chairs was divided among a number of craftsmen, or perhaps several different shops, including turners, rush weavers, and painters. Although made at least a generation after the taste for classical furniture became widespread in America, these chairs retain the curved oblong tablet crest that is a reference to ancient Greek
Collections
- Henry David Thoreau Collection
- Furniture
