Lot Essay
This side chair features characteristics which have been traditionally associated with Newport, such as the carved shell on the crest which is repeated on the knees, together with pendant husks, vase and block-turned stretchers, and ball-and-claw feet. Recent scholarship on chairs of this design suggests, however, that before 1750 Rhode Island was importing the greater part of its seating furniture from Boston, and that Newport craftsmen were not making chairs until at least 1755-1760. Such early walnut chairs made for export from Boston introduced design elements which influenced later Newport-produced seating, such as compass seats, single crook stiles, a baluster-shaped splat, and claw and ball feet, with the option of stretchers and basic types of carving (see Leigh Keno, Joan Barzilay Freund, and Alan Miller, "The Very Pink of the Mode: Boston Georgian Chairs, Their Export, and their Influence," American Furniture (Hanover, NH, 1996), pp.292-296).
The particularly short, wide neck of the vase-shaped splat on this chair is closely related to that on a side chair at Historic Deerfield, illustrated in Dean A. Fales, Jr., The Furniture of Historic Deerfield (New York, 1976), p. 46, pl. 78. For another related pair of chairs see Sotheby's New York, October 19, 1996, lot 251.
The particularly short, wide neck of the vase-shaped splat on this chair is closely related to that on a side chair at Historic Deerfield, illustrated in Dean A. Fales, Jr., The Furniture of Historic Deerfield (New York, 1976), p. 46, pl. 78. For another related pair of chairs see Sotheby's New York, October 19, 1996, lot 251.