HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, 1790-1810

With their shield-backs and drapery-swagged urn splats, these chairs are a hybrid design based on plates four and six of the 1794 edition of George Hepplewhite's The Cabinet-maker and Upholster's Guide. This pattern book was available at the Hartford bookstore, Hudson & Goodwin, as early as 1799, as sited in Gerald W.R. Wood and William N. Hosley, Jr., eds., The Great River: Art & Society of the Connecticut Valley, 1635-1820 (Hartford, 1985). As noted, only a small amount of furniture in Hartford was made based on this pattern book. For a similar armchair with turned and carved legs see Gerald W.R. Wood and William N. Hosley, Jr., eds., The Great River: Art & Society of the Connecticut Valley, 1635-1820 (Hartford, 1985), pp. 262-263, cat. 50.