Rhode Island
Maple and ash A wonderful example from an identified group of early 18th-century Rhode Island turned furniture… in period surface.
The chair is related to a group of gate-leg tables featuring legs turned with thin columns that suddenly bulge into two compressed balls, a design almost identical to the stretchers of this round-about chair. Although this chair probably postdates the tables by twenty years, the chair is clearly the product of a later generation of craftsmen active within the same period and location.
Item Date: Circa 1750
Item Condition: The chair has survived in remarkable original condition; all original structural and ornamental components intact, including its fragile splats, feet, and maple splint seat. (Seat has experienced losses and has been reinforced by the insertion of wooden slats. An exposed vertical slot on the proper-left post is a mistake made by the craftsman who made the chair, a mortise for a splat cut in the wrong location. The curved and stepped crest and outwardly scrolled arm rail have sustained some early and minor shrinkage; several cracks that likely occurred in the 18th-century were repaired in the period with wrought-nails. The present surface is undisturbed 19th- century salmon/red paint over an earlier layer of red.
Reference: The group of distinctive Rhode Island turned furniture is examined in American Furniture, Chipstone 2005, pages, 2-21.
Price: $1,150
SKU 621-34
For More Information, Please Contact David Hillier at 978-597-8084 or email drh@aaawt.com.
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