Side chair

BFA Number

DAPC_2015-5077

Date

1914-1940

Current Owner

Nichols House Museum
More details

Details

Description

White oak Renaissance Revival-style side chair. The chair back is flat and rectangular with a straight crest rail and squared shoulders. The crest rail is pierced and carved with a crown at the center supported by two putti. Scrolled forms extend from behind the arms of each putti, curving behind their heads and inscribed with three incised lines. The crown has five curved sections with small circles lining the inner three. At the center, a circle adorns the top of the crown and layered square forms suggest diamonds at the bottom.

The rear stiles are continuous with the back legs and composed of one piece of wood. The stiles are rope-turned and carved with a stylized flower and two leaves on the rectangular blocks where they meet the crest rail and lower slat. The stiles are topped with acorn-shaped caps. Between the stiles, a carved and pierced splat frames oval-shaped caning that continues onto the edges of the crest rail and lower slat. On each side of the caning, the splat is carved with a stylized central flower from which long scrolled leaves and tendrils protrude. The lower slat is decorated with a nearly identical foliate carving. Below the lower slat, the stiles have another short section of rope turning extending until they attach to the seat frame.

The seat is trapezoidal, framing a caned sitting surface. The seat rails are attached to one another with mortise and tenon joints. The seat frame is carved down at the top interior edges and pierced so that the caning may be woven through it. The caning is likely original. The front legs are rope turned with rectangular blocks at points of intersection with the stretchers and seat. The rear legs are baluster turned with a similar block pattern. Rectangular grooves are cut into the corners of the seat frame to accommodate the legs, which are mortise and tenoned and glued to the side seat rails. Small wood strips are glued to the underside of the seat frame where the legs attach. This may constitute a repair.

The front legs are topped with two turned concentric circles. The rope-turned stretchers are arranged in an H-form with two additional stretchers above running between the front and rear legs. The rear stretcher is rope-turned. The front stretcher is carved and pierced with a crown similar to the crown on the crest rail. Four foliate tendrils project from either side of the crown, the longest one forming a scroll. The stretchers are attached to the legs with mortise and tenon joints and reinforced with glue. The front feet are thin ball feet while the back feet are raked back stump feet. The entire chair is covered with a dark wash.

The chair retains its original seat squab, embroidered in gold with a stylized pink flower. The flower has five light pink outer petals and five dark pink interior petals with five green leaves. Its center is brown with yellow dots.

Object use

Seating furniture

Object type

Chair

Maker

Irving and Casson-A. H. Davenport, interior designer and manufacturer, 1914-1974; Nichols, Rose Standish, carver and needleworker, 1872-1960

Basis of maker

According to museum records and research conducted by Robert Mussey at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Rose Standish Nichols commissioned Irving and Casson-A. H. Davenport to make the chair form uncarved. She carved it herself with a design based upon a seventeenth century chair owned by her family. In addition to the carving, it is likely that Rose Nichols completed the chair caning. She or one of her sisters likely also embroidered the seat squab.

Place of origin

Boston, Massachusetts; East Cambridge, Massachusetts

Basis of origin

The factory of Irving and Casson-A. H. Davenport was located in East Cambridge. Nichols lived, and presumably carved the chair, in Boston.

Date

1914-1940

Basis of date

Date based on museum records, history of manufacturer, and research conducted by Robert Mussey.

Style

Colonial Revival; Renaissance Revival

Materials

Oak; Cane

Attributes & techniques

Baluster legs; Ball feet; Carving; Turning; Varnishing

Marks, signatures, inscriptions

None found

Dimensions

Height 44.25 in. (112.4 cm), Seat height 17.825 in. (45.3 cm), Width 19.825 in. (50.4 cm), Depth 15.825 in. (40.2 cm)

Associated objects

DAPC_2015-5076; DAPC_2015-5087

Subject

Chairs

Context

According to museum records, Rose Standish Nichols carved two replicas of a late seventeenth century English chair owned by her family, in the early twentieth century. (See DAPC_2015-5087 for the English chair.) She and her sisters maintained woodworking as a hobby through adulthood following their education at the innovative Mrs. Shaw's School as children. At the school, boys and girls studied together, an uncommon practice for the period. Among their lessons was the sloyd woodworking method for children, which was meant to provide a holistic education for body and mind. Sloyd, or educational sloyd, was a system developed in Finland in the 1860s and practiced in the United States until the early 20th century.

Current owner

Nichols House Museum

Credit

Bequest of Rose Standish Nichols

Owner's accession number

1961.100.2a

Rights

For reproduction requests or more information, contact the Nichols House Museum at 617-227-6993 or through its website, http://nicholshousemuseum.org.

Source

Photographed by the staff of the Boston Furniture Archive, July 2015.

Date digitized

2017-01-31

Date modified

2017-01-31

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

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