Description:
Easy chair or wing chair with an arched crest rail, canted back flanked by shaped wings, stump arm supports, and supported by medial stretcher and straight bracketed legs. The chair, acquired by Reginal and Rachel French from the Sidney White House in Amherst, Massachusetts, is a significant local example that survives with fragments of the original under-upholstery and a dark green oil cloth under the latter upholstery (see 96.056.2). 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.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+96.056.1 |
