Description:
This side chair is one of a set of six that Eliphalet Chapin (1741-1807) made for Ebenezer Grant (1706-1797) as part of a large commission of furniture that Grant presented to his daughter Anne (Grant) Marsh (1748-1838) when she married Rev. John Marsh (1742-1828) of Wethersfield in 1775. Grant recorded this commission, including this chair, in his daybook, noting "1/2 doz molbor'o ditto [chairs]" priced at 1 pound 10 shillings each. Remarkably, this chair retains its pierced seat rail brackets. The X-interlaced splat is the most elaborate of the Chapin shop designs and the pierced carved brackets were particularly labor-intensive, which explains why this chair with straight legs was as costly as chairs with carved ball-and-claw feet. The inside of the proper right rear leg is cherry, and the proper left rear corner block is white pine.
Label Text:
East Windsor, Connecticut cabinetmaker Eliphalet Chapin made this side chair as part of a set of six for East Windsor merchant Ebenezer Grant (1706-1797). Grant ordered the set as part of a wedding gift for his daughter, Ann Grant (1748-1838), when she married Rev. John Marsh (1742-1828), pastor of Wethersfield’s First Congregational Church, in 1775. Grant noted his purchase in his daybook: “1/2 doz molbor’o [chairs] 25s/[shillings].” The design term “molbor’o” refers to so-called “Marlborough” legs—straight legs with a square profile—favored by George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough (1739-18171) and popularized in English pattern books. As Chapin’s most ambitious design, the “X”-interlaced splat and the pierced, carved brackets were labor-intensive, making this chair as expensive as his chairs with cabriole legs and carved ball-and-claw feet. Widely admired throughout the Connecticut Valley, Chapin’s chair designs, including this “molbor’o” chair, inspired imitators in the Connecticut Valley of western Massachusetts.
Provenance: Ann (Grant) Marsh (1748-1838) and Rev. John Marsh (1742-1828), Wethersfield, Connecticut.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2013.2 |
