Details
Description
Klismos side chair. The crest, inset with a raised, mahogany-veneered tablet with hollow ends, has rounded ends relief-carved with flat, double-ended scrolls centering stylized anthemions. A horizontal splat carved with a drapery swag and pendant half anthemions or scrolled tassels at the sides meets that meet the bottom of the crest. Deeply curved stiles molded on the front with beaded edges continue onto and along the top of the flat horizontal side rails and terminate in downturned scrolls at the front. The stiles are angled to accommodate a trapezoidal seat upholstered over the front rail in black horsehair with red leather piping at the sides and bottom front edge. Swanky! Leaf-like elements are carved behind each stile at the juncture with rear seat rail. The chevron-carved, or gadrooned, front seat rail has a carved acanthus leaf in a deep V at the center. The front sabre legs with beaded edges are carved with an acanthus leaves at their knees. The rear sabre legs are undecorated.
Object use
Seating furniture
Object type
Chair
Place of origin
Boston, Massachusetts
Basis of origin
Winterthur Museum registration records.
Date
1815-1825
Basis of date
Winterthur Museum registration records.
Style
Empire
Materials
Mahogany; Birch
Attributes & techniques
Sabre legs; Carving; Moldings; Veneer
Marks, signatures, inscriptions
Stamp on top of front seat rail and bottom of slip seat: [X].
Scratched on bottom of seat rails: [The / other / chair / has / 1 million] and miscellaneous numbers.
Dimensions
Height 33 in. (83.8 cm), Width 19 in. (48.3 cm), Depth 22.5 in. (57.2 cm)
Associated objects
One of a pair.
Bibliography
Article: Page Talbott, "Seating Furniture in Boston, 1810–1835," The Magazine Antiques 139, no. 5 (May 1991): 960.
Exhibition catalog: Wendy A. Cooper, Classical Taste in America 1800-1840 (New York: Abbeville Press, 1993), fig. 77, 113-115.
Subject
Chairs
Current owner
Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Credit
Museum purchase
Owner's accession number
1982.0099.001
Rights
Metadata and images digitized from the Decorative Arts Photographic Collection of the Winterthur Library. For reproduction requests or more information, contact DAPC at reference@winterthur.org.
Source
Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Date digitized
2015-05-26
Date modified
2018-07-17