Description:
Chippendale birch side chair with a mahoganized finish, a scalloped crest rail with shaped ears, a pierced vasiform back, slip seat, and four straight legs and stretchers. It was bought at the sale of the belongings of John Williams after his death in 1816, probably by Ralph Williams (1788-1858) whose second wife was Rhoda Wells Williams (1798-1883) of Deerfield, sister of Mrs. Henry King Hoyt of Deerfield (born Catherine Wells, 1805-1891) gave many old family pieces such as this chair to Miss C. Alice Baker (1833-1909). John Williams (1751-1816), son of Elijah Williams (1712-1771) and Margaret Pynchon (1727-1772) of Deerfield, graduated Harvard in 1769 and initially practiced law in Salem with his grandfather, William Pynchon, until becoming a merchant, dealing primarily in lumber and the West Indies trade. Although reprimanded as a Tory during the Revolution, he regained his reputation in public affairs as registrar of deeds and justice of the peace, in which office he apprehended a ring of counterfeiters in 1801 and for which he received a silver tankard (97.60.11) and a silver coffee urn. Williams bequeathed the tankard in a codicil to his will to the Rev. Samuel Williams, pastor of the First Congregational Church in Deerfield. The front seat rail has two notches in it, indicating it was once part of a suite of chairs.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+69.0306 |
