Description:
Queen Anne side chair in walnut with a maple, balloon slip seat covered with new red wool damask and braced with pine corner blocks. The arched crest rail has a center carved shell ending in volutes over undulating stiles and a vase-form splat; over a balloon slip-seat fitting into a conforming seat frame; over two front stocky, cabriole legs with shell carvings ending in volutes and drop pendant husks on the knees and ending in early ball-and-claw feet with wide, deep webbings between the knuckles and chamfered rear legs, joined by block, baluster, and arrow-turned compressed stretchers. The back rail of the slip seat frame is marked "VI." This chair was acquired from Deerfield residents and sisters Elizabeth Fuller (1896-1979) and Katherine Fuller Arms (1891-1985), whose grandfather, Deerfield artist George Fuller (1822-1884), married Agnes Higginson of Boston. It is possible that the chair descended from members of the Higginson family living in Boston in the eighteenth century - or, it may have descended in the Williams and Fuller families of Deerfield, perhaps as part of a set that Deerfield physician, Dr. Thomas Williams (1718-1775), purchased in Boston and shipped to the large gambrel-roof house that he built in 1748 on Deerfield’s Main Street. If so, it would have been a rarity in western Massachusetts. Its fashionable design, featuring a “crooked,” or ergonomically curved back, shaped stiles and shell-carved crest, so-called “balloon” seat, cabriole legs reinforced with turned stretchers and ball-and-claw feet would have commanded neighbors’ attention. So, too, would its material: dense black walnut. Dr. Thomas Williams was born in Newton, Massachusetts, and received medical training probably in nearby Boston before moving to Deerfield in 1739. After establishing his practice in Deerfield, he regularly traveled to Boston to buy pharmaceutical supplies as well as home furnishings. Perhaps his purchases reflected the importance he placed on his family and childhood connections to Boston. Renowned for the fashionable design and high-quality workmanship of their best seating furniture, Boston chair-makers produced large numbers of chairs such as this example. With his possible purchase of this set, Dr. Thomas Williams would have accomplished several goals beyond meeting the need for seating in his home. He would have demonstrated his connections to Boston merchants, his access to consumer goods unavailable to most of the region’s inhabitants and his knowledge of - and ability to purchase - current fashions. These subtle messages may have helped to support his claims to professional proficiency, solidify his reputation and perhaps enlarge his medical practice. If the chair descended in the Williams family, it would have passed from Dr. Thomas Williams; to his son Ephraim (1760-1835); and to Ephraim's son, Bishop John Williams (1817-1899) who was born in Deerfield and became a president of Trinity College in Hartford, fourth bishop of Connecticut, and 54th in succession in the American episcopate. The Bishop would have bequeathed the chair to his first cousin, twice removed, William Stoddard Williams (1834-1911), the son of Ephraim Williams (1797-1870) and Rebecca Jackson Wiliams (1799-1883), who was an insurance agent in Greenfield and who left it to his niece, Mary Williams Field Fuller (1863-1951), the wife of George Spencer Fuller (1863-1911). Mary Fuller gave the chair to her daughter Elizabeth B. Fuller (and possibly also her daughter Katherine Fuller Arms) who sold it to Historic Deerfield. See also 82.170 and 2003.44 for other furniture from Bishop John Williams. The seat rail is red maple, and the proper left corner block is white pine.
Label Text:
This chair was acquired from Deerfield residents Elizabeth Fuller and Katherine Fuller Arms, whose grandfather, Deerfield artist George Fuller (1822-1884), married Agnes Higginson of Boston. It is possible that the chair descended from members of the Higginson family living in Boston in the eighteenth century—or, it may have descended in the Williams and Fuller families of Deerfield, perhaps as part of a set that Deerfield physician, Dr. Thomas Williams (1718-1775), purchased in Boston and shipped to the large gambrel-roof house that he built in 1748 on Deerfield’s Main Street. If so, it would have been a rarity in western Massachusetts. It’s fashionable design, featuring a “crooked,” or ergonomically curved back, shaped stiles and shell-carved crest, so-called “balloon” seat, cabriole legs reinforced with turned stretchers and ball-and-claw feet would have commanded neighbors’ attention. So, too, would its material: dense black walnut.
Renowned for the fashionable design and high-quality workmanship of their best seating furniture, Boston chair-makers produced large numbers of chairs such as this example. With his possible purchase of this set, Dr. Thomas Williams would have accomplished several goals beyond meeting the need for seating in his home. He would have demonstrated his connections to Boston merchants, his access to consumer goods unavailable to most of the region’s inhabitants and his knowledge of—and ability to purchase—current fashions. These subtle messages may have helped to support his claims to professional proficiency, solidify his reputation and perhaps enlarge his medical practice.
Dr. Thomas Williams was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received medical training probably in nearby Boston before moving to Deerfield in 1739. After establishing his practice in Deerfield, he regularly traveled to Boston to buy pharmaceutical supplies as well as home furnishings. Perhaps his purchases reflected the importance he placed on his family and childhood connections to Boston.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+59.174 |
