Images(4)

Banjo Chair

Date1900-1925

OriginAmerica, New Hampshire (possibly)

MediumTulip poplar, maple, birch, ebony, plastic, and iron

DimensionsOH: 42"; OW: 20 1/2": OD: 14 3/4" OH: 106.6 cm.; OW: 52.0 cm.; OD: 37.4 cm.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1991.2000.4

DescriptionChair designed in the form of a banjo: the instrument's neck and peghead with five inlaid "strings" oriented vertically along neck and five inlaid circles resembling tuning pegs on peghead form the chair's back; the seat is circular with inlaid "strings" and "tailpiece" resembling the instrument's body and a series of turned flattened balls tenoned into the underside of the perimeter of the seat; four turned legs with H-stretcher are tenoned into the bottom of the seat.
Label TextThis is one of five known banjo chairs produced by an unknown maker, possibly in New Hampshire, around the turn of the 20th century. Two stools (one in the AARFAM collection at Colonial Williamsburg, #2014.2000.1) made in the form of a tambourines survive from the same hand. The chair's fragility and discomfort suggest that it was not intended for constant use. It epitomizes the fanciful-but sometimes impractical-design, good craftsmanship, and obscure purpose that often distinguish furniture categorized as folk art.

Typically, the tuning head for an American banjo's fifth string is located between the fourth and fifth frets on the top edge of the neck of the instrument. In all other details, the maker of the chair was familiar with banjo design.
ProvenanceMorrill's Auctions, Bridport, Maine; Nancy Prince, American Antiques, North Turner, Maine.

George Morrill told AARFAM curator Richard Miller that the chair was consigned to him by the children of a New Hampshire man who had bought it in New York years ago (letter from Richard Miller to Allan Katz, 1/18/1993, original in object file.)