Side chair
- DATE:
- 1735–1760
- MATERIAL AND TECHNIQUE:
- Maple and rush
- CLASSIFICATION:
- Furnishings
- DIMENSIONS:
- Overall: 41 3/8 x 18 1/4 x 16 3/4 in. (105.08 x 46.35 x 42.54 cm.)
- DEPARTMENT:
- Decorative Arts and Design
- LOCATION:
- American Art - 18th Century, Level 4
- CREDIT LINE:
- Dallas Museum of Art, The Faith P. and Charles L. Bybee Collection, gift of Faith P. Bybee
- COPYRIGHT:
- Image courtesy Dallas Museum of Art.
- OBJECT NUMBER:
- 1988.B.69
General Description
Made of maple with a heavy ball stretcher in front, rush seat, and a careful gradation of back slats, this side chair is a particularly well-preserved example of a popular type. Because of its well-liked style, relative comfort, and affordability, chairs such as these were made well into the early years of the 20th century and can be found in a number of collections, both public and private. Centers of production included the Delaware River Valley of Philadelphia and South Jersey, but this type of chair shows a strong European influence as well. By grafting the ball-and-ring stretcher of fashionable New England chairs onto a local tradition of Germanic slat-back chairs, Philadelphia chairmakers were able to more effectively compete in the marketplace.
Heather Bowling, Digital Collections Content Coordinator, 2016.
Drawn from
-
Mabel Crispin Powers, "The Ware Chairs of South Jersey," Antiques, Volume 9 (May 1926): 307-311.
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Richard H. Randall, Jr., American Furniture in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1965, 178-79.