Lot Essay
For reasons of taste and possibly the implicit expense of upholstering such a form, back stools are a relatively rare form in American 18th century furniture design. Examples of the form nonetheless appear in each major port city of America's Atlantic coast.
The earliest appearance of the form and the use of the term 'back stool' appear to have been at two different times in America. The English design partners Ince & Mayhew appear to have used the term first in 1759 in their publication The Universal System of Household Furniture (Greenlaw, New England at Williamsburg (Charlottesville: 1974)p. 71); it was also called at this time 'French stool' and 'stool back.' The presence of the form in America, however, can actually be documented to more than a full decade earlier. On January 9, 1746, the Boston New-Letter advertised the estate sale of Charles Paxton with the following,
To be Sold at Publick Vendue on Monday next a 3 o'clock, Afternoon, at the House of CHarles Paxton, Esq., the
following Goods, viz: A fashionable crimson Damask Furniture
with Counterpain and two Sets of Window Curtains, and Vallans
of the same Damask. Eight Walnut Tree Chairs, stuff back
and seats covered with the same Damask...(Dowd, The Arts and Crafts in New England, 1704-1775, (Topsfield, MA: 1927), p. 111)
A Philadelphia price list in 1772 referred to the form as, "[a] Chair Frame for Stuffing over back and Seat with Marlborough feet" (Hummel, A Winterthur Guide to American Chippendale Furniture: Middle Atlantic and Southern Colonies(New York: 1976), p. 80). Likewise, Theodosius Fowler, a cabinetmaker in New York, advertised in 1774 that he made, "backstool chairs finished in the genteelest and newest taste" (Hummel, p. 25).
Several upholstered back stools are in musuem and private collections. A Federal back stool in the collection of Colonial Williamsburg Foundation with bowed crestrail and similarly shaped returns is illustrated and discussed in Grennlaw, New England Furniture at Williamsburg (Charlottesville: 1974), p. 71, fig. 61. Another related Federal upholstered back stool, also thought to be from New England and made circa 1795, with rounded crest, serpentine corner blocks and square tapering legs in the collection of the Winterthur Museum is illustrated and discussed in Montgomery, American Furniture: The Federal Period (New York: 1966), pp. 95-96, fig. 44, accession number 57.951. A second Federal backstool at Winterthur, thought to be from New York, and with simple, rounded crest, slightly bowed front seatrail and molded legs, is illustrated and discussed in Hummel, A Winterthur Guide to American Chippendale Furniture: Middle Atlantic and Southern Colonies. (New York: 1976), p. 25, fig. 13. An earlier Philadelphia back stool in the collection of Winterthur, with cyma-form stiles, serpentine front seatrail and molded legs, is also illustrated and discussed in Hummel, p.80, fig. 75. A closely related set of chairs made in Boston and with a Massachusetts history of ownership has been on loan to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.
The earliest appearance of the form and the use of the term 'back stool' appear to have been at two different times in America. The English design partners Ince & Mayhew appear to have used the term first in 1759 in their publication The Universal System of Household Furniture (Greenlaw, New England at Williamsburg (Charlottesville: 1974)p. 71); it was also called at this time 'French stool' and 'stool back.' The presence of the form in America, however, can actually be documented to more than a full decade earlier. On January 9, 1746, the Boston New-Letter advertised the estate sale of Charles Paxton with the following,
To be Sold at Publick Vendue on Monday next a 3 o'clock, Afternoon, at the House of CHarles Paxton, Esq., the
following Goods, viz: A fashionable crimson Damask Furniture
with Counterpain and two Sets of Window Curtains, and Vallans
of the same Damask. Eight Walnut Tree Chairs, stuff back
and seats covered with the same Damask...(Dowd, The Arts and Crafts in New England, 1704-1775, (Topsfield, MA: 1927), p. 111)
A Philadelphia price list in 1772 referred to the form as, "[a] Chair Frame for Stuffing over back and Seat with Marlborough feet" (Hummel, A Winterthur Guide to American Chippendale Furniture: Middle Atlantic and Southern Colonies(New York: 1976), p. 80). Likewise, Theodosius Fowler, a cabinetmaker in New York, advertised in 1774 that he made, "backstool chairs finished in the genteelest and newest taste" (Hummel, p. 25).
Several upholstered back stools are in musuem and private collections. A Federal back stool in the collection of Colonial Williamsburg Foundation with bowed crestrail and similarly shaped returns is illustrated and discussed in Grennlaw, New England Furniture at Williamsburg (Charlottesville: 1974), p. 71, fig. 61. Another related Federal upholstered back stool, also thought to be from New England and made circa 1795, with rounded crest, serpentine corner blocks and square tapering legs in the collection of the Winterthur Museum is illustrated and discussed in Montgomery, American Furniture: The Federal Period (New York: 1966), pp. 95-96, fig. 44, accession number 57.951. A second Federal backstool at Winterthur, thought to be from New York, and with simple, rounded crest, slightly bowed front seatrail and molded legs, is illustrated and discussed in Hummel, A Winterthur Guide to American Chippendale Furniture: Middle Atlantic and Southern Colonies. (New York: 1976), p. 25, fig. 13. An earlier Philadelphia back stool in the collection of Winterthur, with cyma-form stiles, serpentine front seatrail and molded legs, is also illustrated and discussed in Hummel, p.80, fig. 75. A closely related set of chairs made in Boston and with a Massachusetts history of ownership has been on loan to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.