Carver Chair

Maker Unknown, American

Additional Title(s)

Carver Chair Maine

Collections

Jonathan and Karin Fielding Collection

ClassificationsDECORATIVE ARTS

Dateca. 1690

Mediummaple, ash, and red stain

Dimensions45 x 26 1/2 x 20 in. (114.3 x 67.3 x 50.8 cm.)

DescriptionA large turned or ‘Carver’ chair, in maple and ash with boldly turned finials, tow banks of turned spindles, ball-turnings on the back posts, and ‘mushroom’ handholds on front legs. A massive chair with 2-1/2 inch posts and 45-1/2 inches tall - in an old 19th century red stain with no repair or restoration. While it lacks the traditional turned elements of North Shore, Massachusetts chairs, and the double bank of spindles is associated more often with South Shore Massachusetts examples, this chair descended in a family from Lowell, Massachusetts until the late 1980s.

Credit LineJonathan and Karin Fielding Collection

Label TextA "Carver chair" is a turned, spindle-back chair with decorative finials and a rush seat, named after John Carver (ca. 1576-1621), first governor of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, who is said to have brought such a chair to America aboard the Mayflower.

Status

On view

Object numberL2015.41.98