Wainscot Armchair
Maker
Robert Rhea
Date1695
MediumWhite oak, and yellow pine, identified by microanalysis at Winterthur performed by Gordon Saltar, 1975
Dimensions42.75 × 25.75 × 27.75 in. (108.6 × 65.4 × 70.5 cm)
SignedCarved on the back panel "16 R 95 / R I," for Robert Rhea and his wife Janet Hampton.
ClassificationsSeating Furniture
Credit LineGift of Mrs. J. Amory Haskell, 1941
Object number1672
DescriptionOak frame consisting of baluster turned front legs and arm supports, four turned stretchers, molded seat frame, pincer-like angled arms, and rectangular rear styles and rails containing a carved center panel of yellow pine ornamented with a thistle and bands of vertical and diagonal lines. Carved crest rail featuring inward pointing scrolls was at one time detached and is now held in place with iron straps. The horizontal piece of wood below the crest rail is a replacement, as is the seat. The chair is painted with black enamel. Traces of possibly original polychrome color remain on the carved back panel. The area of black enamel around the carved center portion of the panel is over a layer of bright salmon-pink paint.Curatorial RemarksThis chair follows the same structural form as those found along the Scottish east coast, from Aberdeen to the Scottish Borders. Its wide, flaring seat, curved pincer-like arms on column supports, decorated back and scrolled cresting are characteristic features of the caqueteuse pattern that took hold in Scotland during the sixteenth century. Many examples of this type survive in tower houses and museum collections, but the most representative anthology of these high-status chairs is at Trinity Hall, Aberdeen, where they were used ceremonially by the Deacons of the city's seven Incorporated Trades. The inward-pointing scrolls of the New Jersey chair's cresting rail connect it specifically with this Aberdeen group. The carved thistle, which is the central decorative feature of the back panel, became a national symbol of Scotland beginning in the first half of the fifteenth century and enjoyed prominence as a royal emblem on Scottish silver coinage of the reign of James III. The incised bands forming the ground of the back are more difficult to interpret as they do not appear on any other recorded Scots caqueteuse-type chair. Their appearance is most interesting because the nearest analogy is Ogham script, a cryptic alphabet of parallel strokes branching from straight lines that was used by people who lived in the northeast of Scotland between the fourth and sixth centuries.NotesRobert Rhea was born in Scotland and trained there as a joiner before emigrating to America in 1688. He first settled in Shrewsbury, Monmouth County, where in February of 1690 he married Janet Hampton. In 1688, Rhea purchased 145 acres of land in Freehold, expanded with later acquisitions by another 475 acres. In all these deeds, he is referred to as a carpenter. At his death in 1719/20, Rhea's inventory listed "some carpenters, joiners and coopers tools" which he left to his son David in his will. Rhea was interred in a private burial plot on the family farm just west of Freehold. In the mid-20th century the headstones of this small graveyard were removed to the grounds of Old Tennent Presbyterian Church.
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