Lot Essay
The writing-arm windsor chair is an eminently practical form thought to have originated in Connecticut, where a significant number of such chairs were produced in the Lisbon workshop of Ebenezer Tracy (1744-1803), and his three sons, Elijah, Ebenezer, Jr. and Frederick. This particular example of a rare model demonstrates the writing paddle and armchair as a unified design, rather than as an adaptation of a windsor armchair, with the added support of two tongues and three turned supports for the writing arm. The chair also features a wide, scooped saddle seat, as well as a candle slide and storage drawer below the arm and seat, adding to the comfort and convenience of its multifunctionalism.
This chair is closely related to several other comb-back writing-arm chairs, which all share with this example its massive balloon-shaped writing-arm, the pattern of turned elements, swollen lower spindles, and shaped seat. The uncommon two-tongued writing-arm support of this chair is found on two other unmarked comb-back examples, one in the collection of Pendleton House, illustrated in American Furniture in Pendleton House (Providence, 1986), p.210, cat. no. 153, and one at Winterthur, illustrated in Robert Bishop, Centuries and Styles of the American Chair, 1640-1970 (New York, 1972), p.201, pl.274. A comparable example featuring a single tongue and two turned supports for the writing-arm and bearing the mark of the Tracy workshop is in the Mabel Brady Garvan Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, and illustrated in Patricia E. Kane, 300 Years of Seating Furniture (Boston, 1976), p.195, cat. 173. For further information see Charles Santore, The Windsor Style in America, vol. 2 (Philadelphia, 1987), pp.168-178.
This chair is closely related to several other comb-back writing-arm chairs, which all share with this example its massive balloon-shaped writing-arm, the pattern of turned elements, swollen lower spindles, and shaped seat. The uncommon two-tongued writing-arm support of this chair is found on two other unmarked comb-back examples, one in the collection of Pendleton House, illustrated in American Furniture in Pendleton House (Providence, 1986), p.210, cat. no. 153, and one at Winterthur, illustrated in Robert Bishop, Centuries and Styles of the American Chair, 1640-1970 (New York, 1972), p.201, pl.274. A comparable example featuring a single tongue and two turned supports for the writing-arm and bearing the mark of the Tracy workshop is in the Mabel Brady Garvan Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, and illustrated in Patricia E. Kane, 300 Years of Seating Furniture (Boston, 1976), p.195, cat. 173. For further information see Charles Santore, The Windsor Style in America, vol. 2 (Philadelphia, 1987), pp.168-178.