Side Chair
Artist/Culture
American
Date1760-1780
Mediummahogany
Dimensions95.9 x 54.6 x 42.5 cm (37 3/4 x 21 1/2 x 16 3/4 in.)
ClassificationsFurniture
Credit LineGift of Dr. Samuel B. Woodward
Object number1933.2
DescriptionThis Chippendale style chair has a splat back in the owls-eye pattern with the central lobes carved in a scroll pattern for additional decoration. The splat is fitted into the shoe, which is part of the seat rail, and is joined to the crest rail with continuous decorative carving. The curved crest rail has squared, carved ears that lean backwards, with a leaf decoration in the center. Patricia E. Kane writes that this is a common carving for New England chairs, but other examples are scarce. Carved central lobes on splat and hooflike pad feet are similar to Rhode Island examples, but the distincitve leaf carving is found on a few surviving Boston chairs. Two of these have similar pad feet but no stretchers, but another with stretchers has ball and claw feet. The rear stiles are plain and joined with the crest rail with the same mortise-and-tenon construction as the splat, and are continous with the rear legs. This causes the chair's profile to cant slightly back. The rear stump legs are joined to the seat rail, chamfered but thicker where the legs are attached to the rear and center 'H' stretchers. These are turned, and distinguish the side chair as being of American manufacture. English Chippendale chairs of this era had mostly cast off these vestiges of the William and Mary style, but in New England they remained popular. The trapezoidal slip seat has been reupolstered, and the Cabriole legs are joined to the square-cornered seat rail. The knee blocks are flush with the legs, which crest at the knee in an edged ridge. The legs terminate in hooflike pad feet, which may indicate that this side chair came from a Portsmouth, New Hampshire workshop.ProvenanceBrought to Worcester in 1832 from Wethersfield, Conn. by Dr. Samuel B. Woodward, grandfather of the donor, when he came here to be first superintendent of the Mass. State Lunatic Hospital. Dr. Samuel B. Woodward, Worcester, MA;
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