Description:
The survival of original under-upholstery and original green paint on the base of this convenience chair adds to its interpretive significance. Taking the form of an easy chair--a form of seating furniture often placed in chambers as a comfortable, upright alternative to bedsteads for the sick, pregnant and post-partum women and the elderly, this example is fitted with a round cover with gouged finger grips covering a hole beneath the removable seat pad that opens up to a compartment meant to hold a chamber pot, accessed via a hinged door in the back. In her research of early nineteenth-century bedsteads, furniture historian Nancy Goyne Evans has found that many were painted green as a common favorite color. Perhaps this chair was originally paired with a green-painted bedstead. This color may additionally be associated with health/sanitation benefits.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2000.78 |
