Description:
The triple-arched crest rail of this maple, rush-seat side chair is tenoned and pinned to the rear posts. The striped maple vase-shaped splat is tenoned to the crest rail and lower rail, which is tenoned to the posts (the joints omit pins). The posts feature tapered columnar turnings between ball, spool and vasiform elements; spool finials grace their upper ends. The seat rails and single front and side stretchers are joined to the legs with round tenons. The front stretcher is embellished with adorsed attenuated vasiform turnings, separated by a spool. The front legs are turned with three rings separated by swelled passages above ball-turned feet; their tops project slightly above the seat rails and are decorated with scribed concentric circles. The bottom 6 inches of all four legs are ended out with replaced feet. The original finish has been stripped from the frame althouth the bottoms of the crest and lower back rails bear ample evidence of what was presumably the original coat of brown-black paint stain.
The finials, turned front legs and stretcher and turned rear posts of this chair stylistically relate to so-called “Deerfield-type” banister-back chairs produced in mass quantities, probably in the Deerfield chair shop run by members of the King family. A link between the well-known banister-back form and so-called “transitional” chairs with shaped crests and vasiform splats (also made in large quantities throughout the mid Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts) it offers evidence of the versatility of workers in the King family shop and of an alternative style-choice available to the shop’s clients.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2010.21 |
