Description:
Federal easy chair or wing chair made by Benjamin Catlin Gillette, who signed the back of the front rail: "B C Gillett 1806." Born in Torrington, Connecticut, in 1782, and first working in Hartford, Connecticut, Gillette is the only known local cabinetmaker known to have moved south - to Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1809 where he worked as a cabinetmaker and later a shopkeeper running a general mercantile business until his death in 1837. When the chair was stripped for reupholstery, a newspaper advertisement for Aaron Chapin dated December 20 was found glued to the outside of one of the wings. Aaron had worked with his second cousin, Eliphalet Chapin, in East Windsor from 1774-1783, when he moved to Hartford where he worked until his death in 1853. The chair was made for the wedding of Hepzibah Loomis of East Windsor in 1806; she was an in-law of Chapin's wife, Mary King Loomis. This chair has a serpentine crest rail over a canted back flanked by wide, flaring wings broken at the armrest that characterizes neoclassical design; outscrolling arms ending in rolled arm supports; seat with cushion; and two front straight square legs and two slightly flared rear legs. These were often the most comfortable chairs in the house, often reserved for invalids, pregnant women, or the elderly. Since the wings captured heat from the fireplace, they were commonly used in bedrooms of the well-to-do. The first American easy chairs appeared during the William and Mary period (1690-1720); the Queen Anne style (1720-1755) was replaced by the Chippendale period (1755-1790), the heyday of American easy chairs. The green upholstery is a modern replacement.
Subjects:
Textile fabrics; Wool Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+0617A |
