Armchair

Maker Unknown, American

Additional Title(s)

New York Arm Chair

Collections

ClassificationsDECORATIVE ARTS

Dateca. 1700

Mediummaple and hickory, rush seat

Dimensions48 1/2 × 26 × 19 1/2 in. (123.2 × 66 × 49.5 cm.)

DescriptionMaple and hickory arm chair and 18th century linsey-woolsey fabric cushion.

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gail-Oxford Collection

Status

Not on view

Label TextBy 17th- and early 18th-century standards, this armchair would have been considered a very grand piece of seating furniture. Because of its importance, it would most likely have been reserved for the eldest member of the family, the head of the household, or the most honored guest. Sometimes referred to as a “great chair,” it would also have been considered among a family’s most valued home furnishings. With its heavy vertical posts, sausage-shaped front stretchers, elaborately turned rails under knife-blade arms, and beautiful vase-shaped finials, this ladder-back chair was probably produced in New York. There, Dutch and Flemish decorative arts traditions were influential in the 17th and 18th centuries. The use of four slats on the chair back and the highly sculptural turnings are also typical of chairs produced in New York. Chairs such as this were made somewhat more comfortable through the use of cushions or “squabs.”

Object number2017.5.67