Bannister back chairs with split spindles are among the more common furniture forms in New England. This chair is more unusual than most in that it features a crest which sits on top of the stiles rather than one that is set between them in the standard manner. Chairs with similar crests with arches and ear-like ends are few and have their roots in English William and Mary cane chairs (Kane, 300 Years of Seating Furniture (Boston, 1976, fig. 34). The ears and double arches of this crest could also reference a vernacular form of Chippendale crest with rounded ears and serpentine shape; given the late eighteenth century date for the chair, it may well refer to both precedents.

Chairs with related crests include a Massachusetts William-and-Mary sidechair and a mid-late eighteenth century sidechair from Hampstead, New Hampshire (Jobe and Kaye, New England Furniture (SPNEA, 1984, fig. 86; Decorative Arts of New Hampshire (Currier Gallery, 1964), fig. 28). The baluster-shaped arm supports with arrow terminus and small double-sphere turned front stretchers relate to banister back chairs from coastal New Hampshire (see Jobe and Kaye, fig. 88; Jobe, ed., Portsmouth Furniture (SPNEA, 1993), figs. 73-74, 75A-75B).