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Lot Essay
With its vigorous turnings, early construction techniques, and commanding presence, this great chair is a remarkable survival of seventeenth century South Carolina craftsmanship. The only known armchair of its kind, it is a rare document of the aesthetic preferences, craft traditions, and cultural nuances that shaped the earliest material culture of the region.
Poised at the tip of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, Charles Towne, later Charleston, became a major trading center and a destination for immigrants from not only England but France, Switzerland, Germany, Scotland, Spain and Portugal. For the woodworking trade, this influx of immigrants resulted in the creation of indigenous forms influenced by cross-cultural traditions. While the bold character of the front legs and back posts, and flattened ball turnings on this armchair are reminiscent of sixteenth and seventeenth century English spindle-back chairs, there are many more aspects of this chair which link it to French and Continental vernacular furniture.
This armchair was probably made by an emigr Huguenot joiner (Luke Beckerdite, "Religon, Artisanry, and Cultural Identity: The Hugenot Experience in the South," in American Furniture (Hanover and London, 1997), p.203). One third of the joiners documented in seventeenth century South Carolina were Huguenots and by 1700, there were approximately 325 people of French origin in the region (Savage, "The Low Country," in Southern Furniture 1680-1830: The Colonial Williamsburg Collection (Williamsburg, 1997), p.23). The configuration of the back, with tall spindles set into horizontal rails that are square in section is a French chairmaking tradition which was endemic all over Europe. Two chairs with spindle-and-rail backs illustrated in a Danish engraving of circa 1614, show how the French aesthetic was disseminated (figure 1). Another indication of the French influence is the space between the stay rail and the seat, probably alloted for a tied-on squab. Such use of the seat cushion or carreau is a feature of French and Continental furniture. For more on the use of cushions and squabs on 17th century French seat-furniture, see Peter Thornton, Seventeenth-Century Interior Decoration in England, France and Holland (New Haven and London, 1978), pp.180-182.
As few spindle-back turned chairs survive from the Southern States, a body of comparables is difficult to assemble and specific regional characteristics are not easily isolated. The chair being offered here does, however, exhibit aspects of design found on contemporary or later chairs from adjacent areas. The brassel-ended extension of the arms past their supports, a feature seen in France and all over Northern Europe, can be found on chairs from Virginia and North Carolina (for a discussion of Huguenot-influenced chair groups from North Carolina see Bivins, The Furniture of Coastal North Carolina: 1700-1820 (Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 1988), p.114-116).
Additionally, the chair illustrate presents a dynamic design system that appears to be tied to the Carolina Low Country. The dynamic all-over decorative ornamentation, the symmetry and repetition of ornament from side to side and within discrete elements are found in variations on other chairs, again from eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia (for example, a chair from Mecklenburg County, Virginina, circa 1750-1800 illustrated in Hurst and Prown, 1997, p.56). Furthermore, the disproportionate relationships of the thicker and thinner, taller and shorter elements are shared by other chairs from the region (see an armchair from Pasquotank County, North Carolina, Bivins, 1988, p.115, fig.5.1).
Despite such vernacular characteristics as the quasi-architectural turnings, a case for a Charleston attribution could be made. Remnants of sophisticated tool marks suggest an urban origin (Beckerdite, 1997, p.204), and the armchair descended in a Charleston family.
The materials employed, craft techniques, and overall aesthetic combined with the historical provenance allows this armchair to make a unique and multi-faceted statement that is a significant contribution to the history of furniture in South Carolina.
Poised at the tip of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, Charles Towne, later Charleston, became a major trading center and a destination for immigrants from not only England but France, Switzerland, Germany, Scotland, Spain and Portugal. For the woodworking trade, this influx of immigrants resulted in the creation of indigenous forms influenced by cross-cultural traditions. While the bold character of the front legs and back posts, and flattened ball turnings on this armchair are reminiscent of sixteenth and seventeenth century English spindle-back chairs, there are many more aspects of this chair which link it to French and Continental vernacular furniture.
This armchair was probably made by an emigr Huguenot joiner (Luke Beckerdite, "Religon, Artisanry, and Cultural Identity: The Hugenot Experience in the South," in American Furniture (Hanover and London, 1997), p.203). One third of the joiners documented in seventeenth century South Carolina were Huguenots and by 1700, there were approximately 325 people of French origin in the region (Savage, "The Low Country," in Southern Furniture 1680-1830: The Colonial Williamsburg Collection (Williamsburg, 1997), p.23). The configuration of the back, with tall spindles set into horizontal rails that are square in section is a French chairmaking tradition which was endemic all over Europe. Two chairs with spindle-and-rail backs illustrated in a Danish engraving of circa 1614, show how the French aesthetic was disseminated (figure 1). Another indication of the French influence is the space between the stay rail and the seat, probably alloted for a tied-on squab. Such use of the seat cushion or carreau is a feature of French and Continental furniture. For more on the use of cushions and squabs on 17th century French seat-furniture, see Peter Thornton, Seventeenth-Century Interior Decoration in England, France and Holland (New Haven and London, 1978), pp.180-182.
As few spindle-back turned chairs survive from the Southern States, a body of comparables is difficult to assemble and specific regional characteristics are not easily isolated. The chair being offered here does, however, exhibit aspects of design found on contemporary or later chairs from adjacent areas. The brassel-ended extension of the arms past their supports, a feature seen in France and all over Northern Europe, can be found on chairs from Virginia and North Carolina (for a discussion of Huguenot-influenced chair groups from North Carolina see Bivins, The Furniture of Coastal North Carolina: 1700-1820 (Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 1988), p.114-116).
Additionally, the chair illustrate presents a dynamic design system that appears to be tied to the Carolina Low Country. The dynamic all-over decorative ornamentation, the symmetry and repetition of ornament from side to side and within discrete elements are found in variations on other chairs, again from eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia (for example, a chair from Mecklenburg County, Virginina, circa 1750-1800 illustrated in Hurst and Prown, 1997, p.56). Furthermore, the disproportionate relationships of the thicker and thinner, taller and shorter elements are shared by other chairs from the region (see an armchair from Pasquotank County, North Carolina, Bivins, 1988, p.115, fig.5.1).
Despite such vernacular characteristics as the quasi-architectural turnings, a case for a Charleston attribution could be made. Remnants of sophisticated tool marks suggest an urban origin (Beckerdite, 1997, p.204), and the armchair descended in a Charleston family.
The materials employed, craft techniques, and overall aesthetic combined with the historical provenance allows this armchair to make a unique and multi-faceted statement that is a significant contribution to the history of furniture in South Carolina.