Side Chair
Period1750 - 1790
MediumWalnut, with hard pine corner blocks and slip seat frame
Dimensions39.25 × 20.25 × 20.25 in. (99.7 × 51.4 × 51.4 cm)
MarkingsIncised "III" on the inside front seat rail.
ClassificationsSeating Furniture
Credit LineGift of Mrs. J. Amory Haskell, 1934
Object number633
DescriptionThe side chair features front cabriole legs that end in pad feet, seat rails that do not have a molding on their top edge, a solid vase-shaped splat, and a shaped crest rail that ends in large splayed ears. Ogee corner brackets are nailed in place on the front legs. The side seat rails were fashioned with through tenons where they meet the rear legs, which are chamfered and rake backward below the rails. A beaded molding outlines the rear stiles above the seat rails, as well as the crest rail.Curatorial RemarksSeveral features distinguish the chair from its Philadelphia counterparts, among them the prominent ears of the crest rail, the lack of molding along the upper edge of the seat rails, and the articulation of the feet. These factors suggest that the chair was made in central New Jersey.NotesThe chair descended in the Imlay family of Allentown, Monmouth County, to Miss Mary Emma Gordon (1858 - 1936). She was the last member of the family to live in the large mansion built by John Imlay (1749 - 1813), an important landmark that was finished in 1794. By the mid 1920s, Gordon began selling inherited treasures that the house contained. Wallpaper from one upstairs room was installed at the Winterthur Museum near Wilmington, DE, while paper from a first floor parlor is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
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