Four chairs from two centuries and two continents

In this post and several to follow, I am going to examine and compare four different chairs, two from North America and two from Europe, one from the last quarter of the 18^th century and three from the first quarter of the 19^th century.

Philadelphia Chippendale Chair c. 1780

The first chair, actually one of a pair, is a Philadelphia Chippendale chair from about 1780, or perhaps a little earlier. The design is a very well documented Philadelphia style and is variously described as “ladder-back” (Fine Points of Furniture, Early American by Albert Sack, 1950 ed., p.48), “slat or splat back” (American Furniture, The Federal Period by Charles F. Montgomery, plate 83), and sometimes “ribbon back.” The chair has three serpentine curved, pierced slats or splats, rounded shoulders and a serpentine curved, pierced crest rail. The legs are square/straight with a beaded edge. The seat front is straight with a beaded edge. The chair is constructed of mahogany with pine secondary woods. The chair (and its mate as well) has the original pine slip-seat frame chisel-marked “I”. (The other chair is marked “III” and the slip-seat “II” so they were part of a larger set and at least two slip-seats were switched.)

Philadelphia Chippendale chair, side view

 Albert Sack rates such a chair as “best” on his “good, better, best” scale with this commentary:

Chippendale mahogany ladder-back side chair, Philadelphia, circa 1750-1780. A typical example of a fine Philadelphia chair. Dozens of similar sets of this pattern were made in and around Philadelphia. The rounded contours where the back posts meet the crest and the typical serpentine crest with its molded edge vary but little in the many examples in existence. The chief differences occur in the seat fronts, which are sometimes straight and sometimes serpentine – also in the legs which are either molded or have a beaded edge.

The earlier examples tend to have a straight seat front and straight or square legs with beaded edges, the later serpentine seat fronts with tapered, molded legs.

Straight or square leg with beaded edge

The chair listed by Montgomery is described as “with round shoulders” and has the following commentary:

William Macpherson Hornor, Jr., states that Thomas Tufft made a set of twelve of this kind for Deborah Norris Logan of Stenton in 1783 and that six others were fashioned by Jacob Wayne for Captain Thomas Mason in 1790. An example of each set is illustrated in The Blue Book of Philadelphia Furniture, Plates 289 and 101, respectively. Both chairs are virtually identical to the one shown here. All three have stretchers, molded tapered legs, slip seats, and serpentine front rails. Two other chairs in the Winterthur collection, almost identical to this pair except for having straight seat fronts, have the side rails tenoned through the back legs in the normal manner of Philadelphia chairmaking. These are not tenoned through the rear legs. 

Round shoulder and pierced, serpentine crest rail

 Montgomery also illustrates an armchair of similar design and Sack four New England Chairs with similar pierced horizontal slats but with “ears” rather than round shoulders. The chair (pair) discussed here does not have the side rails tenoned through the back legs but, as noted above and in other Winterthur examples, while this technique was common in Philadelphia chairmaking it was not universal.

Pine slip-seat frame with chisel mark "I"

 A pair of chairs believed to be part of the Logan family chairs were recently purchased by Stenton (a house museum) for the hammer price of $18,000.  You can also visit the website of James Wm. Lowry to see a similar chair of slightly later date with straight but molded legs.

R.J.Fendorf
Antiques 
in the Georgian Village
1714 West 45th Street
Kansas City, MO 64111
913.302.3206
jfendorf@yahoo.com