PROBABLY CONNECTICUT, LATE 18TH CENTURY

The Gardiner family history is extremely complex, with intermarriages and multiple members of each generation sharing the same name. As a result, it is difficult to ascertain the exact history of these chairs. They are known to have been at Sagtikos Manor in Islip from the end of the nineteenth century but were eventually inherited by Robert David Lion Gardiner of Gardiner's Island. Recent research suggests that the chairs were brought into the Gardiner family when Sarah Griswold (d. 1863) of Connecticut married John Lyon Gardiner (1770-1816) in 1803. It is probable that the author of the handwritten note affixed to the underside of one of these chairs was Sarah Diodati Gardiner (1863-1953), who was interested in family history.