Side Chair

Date1730-1765

OriginAmerica, Massachusetts or Rhode Island

MediumWalnut and maple

DimensionsOH: 41" OW: 21" OD: 21 3/4" H(seat): 17 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1930-164

DescriptionAPPEARANCE: Side chair with compass seat; yoke shaped crest rail; cyma curve stiles; inverted balustroidal form splat, back edge of splat slightly chamfered; cavetto splat shoe with quarter round bead at top; stiles, chamfered on reverse above seat rails, on all four sides between seat rails and top of stretchers; top edge slightly rounded, bottom of front and side seat rails coved, interior of seat rails rabbeted to accept slip seat; cabriole legs with ogee knee brackets, plain knee; turned shallow pad feet with tall, narrow disks; turned side, back and medial stretchers.

CONSTRUCTION: Walnut frame, slip seat maple; all joints pinned except those of the crest rail, medial, and rear stretchers; crest rail mortised to accept tenons of stiles and splat; splat shoe mortised to accept splat and nailed to rear seat rail; seat rails tenoned to stiles and legs; front legs and seat rails appear to have been pinned from behind and latter pinned from the exterior; knee brackets nailed in place (modern nails) side stretchers square tenoned to stiles and legs, medial stretcher round tenoned between side stretchers; back stretcher round tenoned between stiles.
Label TextThis is the classic New England chair of the Queen Ann period and embodies all of the essential elements of the design: the tall, slender back with flat stiles, the yoke cresting rail, balloon seat, plain cabriole front legs terminating in cushioned pad feet, and blocked-and-turned stretchers. The craftsman has subtly succeeded in lightening the mass of the chair by scraping out the bottom of the seat frame on the front and sides and chamfering the rare legs. Very similar chairs are found in a number of public and private collections. A set of six chairs in the Garvan Collection at Yale belonged to President Holyoke of Harvard. A single chair at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston differs only in the lack of ring turnings on the medial and rear stretchers, as does a pair that descended in the Pierce family of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
InscribedSlip seat signed "Mr. Meyers" in pencil and in what appears to be an earlier hand.
MarkingsStamped into rear member of slip seat "30-164"; chiseled on front seat rail "V"; Chiseled "III" on slip seat.
ProvenanceEx coll: L. G. Meyers; Girl Scout exhibition 1929