Armchair
Details
Description
Seventeenth-century, slat-back armchair made of ash.
Between the rear stiles are three trapezoidal slats with concave upper corners. Atop the rear stiles are egg-shaped finials and spool, reel, and bulb turnings. The stiles are turned cylinders with vase-shaped turnings below the top slat. Turned spindles serve as horizontal arm rests. They are tenoned into the rear stiles and cylindrical arm supports that are continuous with the front legs. The arm supports extend up beyond the arm rests and terminate in bulb-shaped handholds. Between the seat and the arm rests, the arm supports have compressed ball turnings. The trapezoidal rush seat has been replaced. Seven cylindrical stretchers brace the legs: there are two front, two side, and one rear stretcher.
In 1965, the legs terminated in compressed ball feet; currently, the feet are cylindrical.
Between the rear stiles are three trapezoidal slats with concave upper corners. Atop the rear stiles are egg-shaped finials and spool, reel, and bulb turnings. The stiles are turned cylinders with vase-shaped turnings below the top slat. Turned spindles serve as horizontal arm rests. They are tenoned into the rear stiles and cylindrical arm supports that are continuous with the front legs. The arm supports extend up beyond the arm rests and terminate in bulb-shaped handholds. Between the seat and the arm rests, the arm supports have compressed ball turnings. The trapezoidal rush seat has been replaced. Seven cylindrical stretchers brace the legs: there are two front, two side, and one rear stretcher.
In 1965, the legs terminated in compressed ball feet; currently, the feet are cylindrical.
Object use
Seating furnitureObject type
ChairPlace of origin
Vicinity of Boston, MassachusettsBasis of origin
Attributed to vicinity of Boston by Brock Jobe, 2015.Date
1650-1700Basis of date
Date range provided by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019.Style
Seventeenth-CenturyMaterials
AshBasis of materials
Ash identified by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Attributes & techniques
Turning; Finials; Slat-back chairsDimensions
Height 45.5 in. (115.6 cm), Width 23.75 in. (60.3 cm), Depth 22 in. (55.9 cm)History of ownership
Walter Hosmer, Hartford, Connecticut, until 1894; H. Eugene Bolles, Boston, 1894–1909; Mrs. Russell Sage, New York, 1909; Metropolitan Museum of Art.Bibliography
Book: Irving Whitall Lyons, Colonial Furniture of New England (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1924), 143, fig. 27.Book: Benno M. Forman, American Seating Furniture, 1630-1730: An Interpretive Catalogue (New York: W. W. Norton, a Winterthur Book, 1988), 90-91.
Online resource: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Collections, http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection (accessed November 21, 2018), 10.125.677.
Subject
ArmchairsCurrent owner
Metropolitan Museum of ArtCredit
Gift of Mrs. Russell Sage, 1909Owner's accession number
10.125.677Rights
Object owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, http://www.metmuseum.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.
