Side Chair
Period1760 - 1790
MediumWalnut and pine
Dimensions40.75 × 22.25 × 20 in. (103.5 × 56.5 × 50.8 cm)
MarkingsMarked "VIII" on both the top edge of the front seat rail, and on the underside of the front piece of the slip seat frame.
ClassificationsSeating Furniture
Credit LineGift of Mrs. J. Amory Haskell, 1937
Object number1983.421
DescriptionThe side chair features a very realistic shell carving in the center of the crest rail, which terminates in splayed, carved and scrolled corner ears. The vase shaped solid splat is held in place by a molded and concave shaped shoe. The front and side seat rails are not molded on their top edges. The side rails are through tenoned into the rear stiles. Cabriole front legs with shell carvings on their knees terminate in exaggerated trifid feet. The rear legs have been rounded and rake backward. They still show draw knife marks that were not smoothed off when the chair was made. All but one corner block have been replaced. The chair retains an old and possibly original finish.Curatorial RemarksThe chair is similar to one identified as a "plain chair" in a 1767 drawing by Samuel Mickle which is owned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Although the chair has through tenons, and an overall design typical of Philadelphia chairs, the exaggerated trifid feet, the presence of draw knife marks on the rear legs, and the lack of a molding on the top edge of the seat rails indicate that this chair is probably of New Jersey origin. That belief is supported by the provenance of the chair. For a related example also with a Monmouth County provenance, see accession number 1973.10. A possible second chair from this set was owned by the Rev. William Tennent Jr. (1705 - 1777) of Freehold. See accession number 251. The two chairs were clearly made by a common craftsman using the same patterns for the splats and crest rails. The five lobed shell with pronounced auricles also came from the same hand.NotesA label on the bottom edge of the back seat rail reads, "Bought from L. Richmond / Feb 1937 / Colts Neck N. J." Louis I. Richmond (1881 - 1944) was a native of Russia who by 1920 had settled in Freehold, Monmouth County. He ran an antiques shop on East Main Street for roughly thirty years. Mrs. J. Amory Haskell was a regular Richmond customer, buying many things from him that retained a local provenance, such as this chair. Richmond obtained the chair in nearby Colts Neck.
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