Easy chair

BFA Number

DAPC_1964-1488

Date

1715-1730

Current Owner

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
More details

Details

Description

William and Mary-style easy chair made with maple.

S-curved wings extend forward on either side of the ovolo-top chair back. The horizontal arm rests scroll outward. The front planes of the arm rests curve down and out to meet the tops of the vertical, outwardly-scrolled arm supports. The chair has a scalloped front skirt and flat-arched side skirts. The two front legs are baluster-on-ring-and-block turned with trumpet-shaped terminals. There are two reel-, ball-, and vase-shaped medial stretchers: one between baluster-turned side stretchers, in an h-shape, and another between the stump rear legs.

The exposed wood elements are painted black. A padded cushion accompanies the chair. The upholstery is gold-colored damask silk in a stylized, symmetrical foliate pattern including ears of wheat, swags, and a lattice-like design. The front edges of the winds and each arm are corded. An unbleached linen fabric is used under the cushion, which is upholstered on all sides and corded at the upper and lower edges.

Object use

Seating furniture

Object type

Chair

Place of origin

Boston, Massachusetts; Europe

Basis of origin

Winterthur attributes the chair to Boston and the silk textile to Europe.

Date

1715-1730

Basis of date

Dated by Winterthur staff. According to the Winterthur object record, previously catalogued as 1700-1725. This chair was reupholstered in the 20th century using fabric made between 1860-1940.

Style

William and Mary

Materials

Maple; Silk textile; Upholstery materials; Unidentified textile; Paint

Basis of materials

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library identifies the primary wood used as soft maple based on microanalysis performed sometime around 2006.

Attributes & techniques

Turning; Baluster legs; Painting; Stump legs

Marks, signatures, inscriptions

Chiseled on the inside of left seat rail: [IIII].

Dimensions

Height 51.25 in. (130.2 cm), Width 31.5 in. (80 cm), Depth 32.9 in. (83.5 cm)

Bibliography

Book: Benno M. Forman, American Seating Furniture, 1630-1730: An Interpretive Catalogue (New York: W. W. Norton, a Winterthur Book, 1988), cat. 88, 364-66.

Book: Jay E. Cantor, Winterthur (New York: Abrams, 1997), 163.

Online Resource: Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, Collections, http://museumcollection.winterthur.org (accessed May 20, 2015), 1958.0558.

Subject

Armchairs

Current owner

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library

Credit

Gift of Henry Francis du Pont

Owner's accession number

1958.0558

Rights

Object owned by the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, https://www.winterthur.org/.

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

Decorative Arts Photographic Collection

Date digitized

2019-01-25

Date modified

2019-01-25

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

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