The four ladderback sidechairs illustrated here represent products from a school of chairmaking predominantly in the Boston area, but also seen in Pennsylvania. Most likely based on a set of English chairs known to have been in Newburyport, Massachusetts as early as 1804 and owned by William Bartlett, the American made versions of this pattern differ slightly (see, Jobe and Kaye, New England Furniture: the Colonial Era (Boston, 1984), p. 423, fig. 130). Generally less deeply and not openly carved in comparison to its English prototype, particularly at the central anthemion, this popular turn of the 18th and 19th century chair form represents a retention of rococo decorative notions in its foliate and serpentine scrolled carved elements, while incorporating characteristics of the classical in its specific decorative motif (the anthemion) and in its overall form. Among the related examples to these chairs are three at Winterthur, including a triple-slat example stamped with the maker's name "W. Porter," possibly for William Porter of Charlestown, Massachusetts (see, Charles F. Montgomery, American Furniture: The Federal Period, (New York, 1966), pp. 74-75, figs. 11-13); one in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms (see, Conger and Rollins, Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the United States Department of State, (New York, 1991), fig. 49); as well as a Massachusetts example with three slats and a saddled leather seat illustrated in Sack (see, American Antiques from the Israel Sack Collection, vol. 2, no. 13, p. 314, fig. 776). An additional example probably from Massachusetts, once owned by John Walton (Winterthur Museum and Library, Decorative Arts Photographic Collection #69.1282) and dating from the early 19th century, is inscribed in chalk "I?E?J? CHOAT."
The majority of these chairs, including those illustrated here, share the same general dimensions and all use mahogany with various secondary woods, with the exception of one of the Winterthur chairs which was made with maple as the primary wood. This variation suggests the popularity of this design beyond sophisticated urban cabinetmaking centers, as does the Pennsylvania example of the form attest to the continued aesthtic as well as commerical trade between New England and the Mid-Atlantic.