Images(6)

Side chair

Date1775

Artist/Maker Eliphalet Chapin (1741-1807)

OriginAmerica, Connecticut, East Windsor

MediumCherry, white pine

DimensionsOH: 38"; OW: 23 1/2"; OD: 17"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2001-819

DescriptionApperance: Side chair supported at the front by cabriole legs terminating in ball feet and at the rear by cylindrical stump legs below a trapezoidal seat frame upholstered over the rails and below a back composed of an interlaced splat, highlighted with a lozenge, and a cyma-curved crest rail with flaring ears and centered by a carved scallop shell.

Construction: The stiles are tenoned into the crest rail. The splat was originally tenoned into the crest rail, but due to repair is now supported with a quarter round glued to the back of the splat and underside of the crest rail. The base of the splat extends to the rear rail and is inset in the shoe where it is glued to the shoe and the top of the rear rail. The shoe is glued and nailed to the top of the rear rail. Resulting nail holes have been filled.

The back rail is tenoned and double pinned into the stiles. The side rails are through tenoned into the stiles, which are integral with the rear legs. It is likely that the front rail and front joints of the side rails are joined to the front leg extensions in a similar fashion, but they are currently hidden by upholstery. Front knee blocks are glued and nailed to the legs and to the bottom edge of the rails. Corner glue blocks have been replaced.
Label TextThis chair was part of a set of "1/2 doz Claw Foot Cherry Chairs" made by cabinetmaker Eliphalet Chapin for Ebenezer Grant in 1775. Despite its Connecticut origin, the chair shares many features with Philadelphia examples: the crest rail surmounted by a carved shell; the rounded, or stump, rear legs; the squared ball-and-claw feet with stubby talons; and the lack of turned stretchers between the legs. After completing his apprenticeship in Connecticut, Chapin worked in Philadelphia from 1766 to 1769. Chapin's furniture reflects a melding of the designs and construction techniques he learned in Philadelphia with local Connecticut styles and taste.

Loose covers, or slipcovers, of cotton were often used to protect more expensive wool or silk upholstery.
ProvenanceThis chair is one of a set that was purchased from the shop of Eliphalet Chapin by Ebenezer Grant of East Windsor, for the December 6, 1775 wedding of his daughter Ann Grant (1748-1838) of East Windsor, to the Reverend John Marsh (1743-1821), pastor Wethersfield's First Congregational Church.

The Reverend and Mrs. John (Ann Grant) Marsh, Wethersfield, Connecticut to their descendants in that town until 1880 (daughter Lydia Marsh (1786-1880) was their last surviving child who lived in their Wethersfield home); his granddaughter Mrs. Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (Sarah Watson Dana (1814-1907), daughter of William and Mary Marsh Watson), Cambridge, Massachusetts; Judge Irwin Untermeyer, New York; auction, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, November 7-8, 1958, lot 324; John S. Walton, New York; Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Stone, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Chipstone Foundation to Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Ann and Rev. John Marsh's children and grand children appear to have occupied their Wethersfield home after their deaths. Their three unmarried daughters, Ann (1778-1857), Abigail (1784-1869) and Lydia Marsh (1786-1880) remained at home; their widowed daughter Mary Marsh Watson (1782-1869) lived there at least during the 1850s and 1860s per US Census information; and their son John Marsh's (1788-1868) daughters Mary Brimmer Marsh (1829-1902) and Laura Louisa Marsh (1831-1893) along with Mary Marsh Waston's daughter Mary Ann Watson Wilson (1807-1895) and her son Jared Wilson (1850-1889) lived in the house during the 1870s and at least until 1880 per the US censuses. The wills of Ann, Abigail, and Lydia Marsh are extant and can be found on Ancestry.com. Ann and Abigail pre-deceased Lydia. Their wills both indicated that all their person and real estate should go to their surviving (single) sisters, and in Ann's case, upon the decease of the three sisters to the children of their siblings Mary Marsh Watson and John Watson. As the longest surviving child of Ann and John Marsh, Lydia's will was more complex, leaving almost all of her real and personal estate to her neices and nephews with a few small bequests to servants. She left the parlor "red sopha" and nine table spoons to Mary Ann Watson Wilson, and choice of her other furniture to her sister Mary Marsh Watson's other two daughters Sara Watson Dana (1814-1907) and Elizabeth Watson Daggett (1812-1891). The list of furniture chosen from her estate by Sara Dana and Elizabeth Daggett included 6 parlor side chairs, 1 parlor armchair, and 2 chamber side chairs in addition to other forms. Unfortunately the distrubution between the sisters was not specified. But based on its provenance, 2001-819 was one of the chairs she received either from the parlor or chamber set. Her brother John Marsh's daughters, Mary B. and Laura L, and Frances A. Marsh received the residual of her household furniture.

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