Klismos chair

BFA Number

DAPC_2015-0097

Date

1815-1825

Current Owner

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
More details

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

All materials are copyrighted by Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library or by participating institutions.

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