Painted Windsor Side Chair

Dateca. 1820

Artist/Maker Wilder of New Ipswich, N.H.

OriginAmerica, New Hampshire, New Ipswich

MediumEastern white pine, hickory, maple, paint, and gilt

DimensionsOH: 35"; OW: 18 1/2"; OD: 17 3/4" OH: 88.9 cm.; OW: 46.9 cm.; OD: 45.0 cm.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1973.2000.1,1

DescriptionPainted side chair in late Windsor style. Basically painted yellow with legs and spindles turned in the bamboo manner and striped with black paint at the turnings. It has a step-down crest rail decorated in a freehand design of clusters of grapes, grape-vines and leaves. the fruit and leaves are painted freehand in gold, highlighted with olive green and burnt sienna, outlined in black. Black flourishes are used on either side of the crest rail, on the face of the stiles, on the front edge of the seat and on the face of the legs below the front stretcher. A buff to pale yellow primer coat can be seen on the bottom of the shaped seat.
Label TextStepped crests, "bamboo" turnings, backward-curving stiles and spindles, and four stretchers instead of an H-shaped stretcher arrangement distinguish so called "stepped-down" Windsor chairs from earlier Windsor forms. Peculiar to northern New England, the design was made primarily between about 1810 and 1820.

This side chair illustrates the Wilder's distinctive interpretation of this popular form. The crest rail is tall, allowing more space for ornamentation; incised rings on the stiles and spindles echo those on legs and stretchers; and the legs have a distinct taper at top and bottom. The chair is also a vivid illustration of the Wilder's considerable painting skills. The seats were coated with a buff colored primer before a yellow ground was applied to the entire chair. Then, animated clusters of grapes, grapevines, and leaves were painted and gilded freehand.

In 1810 Peter Wilder moved his family from Boston to New Ipswich, New Hampshire, where he entered into a chair making partnership with his son-in-law, Abijah Wetherbee. Peter's sons continued the family's chair making tradition until flood waters engulfed the factory in 1869.
Markings"WILDER" is branded on the bottom of each seat.
ProvenanceFound in the Exeter, N. H.; Richard Mills, Exeter, N. H.; Maze Pottinger Antiques, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.