Images(4)

Armchair

Dateca. 1700

OriginEngland

MediumBeech, birch (repairs) and cane

DimensionsOverall: 25 × 51 × 26in. (63.5 × 129.5 × 66cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1930-220

DescriptionArmchair; Cresting rail tennoned in between uprights; consists of two C-scrolls enclosing petalled flower flanking central leaf design over arched top of cane panel. Uprights turned in vase, block, and ring pattern; surmounted by acorn finial. Stiles flanking cane panel carved with C-scrolls and leaves, as is rail at base. Shaped arms with "ram's horn" terminals supported in front by vase-and ring turned tops of front legs. Seat frame with moulded edge; cane panel. Carved front stretcher similar in design to cresting fail; side stretchers vase, block, and ring-turned, as is medial stretcher. Stretcher between rear legs set high; similarly turned. Back legs block and round below seat; kick out" slightly at base. Front legs turned above stretcher; below carved in flattened and elongated C-scroll which faces out at 45 degree angle; is supported by small segmented cone.
Label TextChairs with seats and backs of woven Asian rattan bark (or cane) became fashionable in England around 1664 and remained so until the 1720s. Light-weight and durable, caned seating was touted as free of the “dust, worms and moths” that then infested upholstered chairs. Carved with C scrolls and foliage and usually fitted with silk or wool cushions, such chairs epitomize the taste for richly ornamented surfaces.

This chair has a tradition of ownership in Pennsylvania by William Penn, who reportedly made a present of it to Henry Badcock. While the gift cannot be substantiated, Penn and Badcock were acquainted and the chair did descend in the Badcock and Lisle families. Its importance to them is apparent in an 1845 will wherein it is described as “an ancient armchair.”
Provenance"Brought from England about 1699 by William Penn to America and later presented to his friend Henry Babcock;.. to..Babcock's great granddaughter...to Herbert N. Stokes, father of the deponents..."

Possible line of descent from Henry Badcock (d.1734) to daughter Mary Badcock Lisle (1691-1763), to son Henry Lisle (1723-1807), to daughter Elizabeth Lisle (1761-1846), to friend and executor Herbert N. Stokes (1803-1859), to children Edward Stokes and Elizabeth Lisle Sokes.

Ex Colls: Henry Badcock (Babcock); Elizabeth Lisle; Herbert N. Stokes; Edward and Elizabeth Lisle Stokes, Howard Reifsnyder.