拍品专文
The fashion for painted or "fancy chairs" was in full bloom when this set was made. Purposefully designed with broad flat surfaces to accept as much decoration as possible, the chair is an elegant classically-
inspired form painted in yellows and gold to give an impression of grandeur.
Painted chairs were quite desirable and were displayed and used in the most formal rooms of the house. As George Hepplewhite stated in The Cabinetmaker and Upholster's Guide, printed posthumously in 1788: "a new and very elegant fashion has arisen within these few years of finishing them [chairs] with painted or japanned work, which gives a rich and splendid appearance...." (New York, 1969), p. 2.
A nearly identical pair of chairs with medallion, griffins, tablet and turnings, in the collection of the Randall Mansion in Cortland, New York, is illustrated in Helen Comstock, American Furniture, (Exton, PA, 1962), fig. 588. For a closely related chair with many of the same features, and located at the Fenimore House in New York, see Robert Bishop, Centuries and Styles of the American Chair, 1640-1790 (New York, 1972), fig. 467.
inspired form painted in yellows and gold to give an impression of grandeur.
Painted chairs were quite desirable and were displayed and used in the most formal rooms of the house. As George Hepplewhite stated in The Cabinetmaker and Upholster's Guide, printed posthumously in 1788: "a new and very elegant fashion has arisen within these few years of finishing them [chairs] with painted or japanned work, which gives a rich and splendid appearance...." (New York, 1969), p. 2.
A nearly identical pair of chairs with medallion, griffins, tablet and turnings, in the collection of the Randall Mansion in Cortland, New York, is illustrated in Helen Comstock, American Furniture, (Exton, PA, 1962), fig. 588. For a closely related chair with many of the same features, and located at the Fenimore House in New York, see Robert Bishop, Centuries and Styles of the American Chair, 1640-1790 (New York, 1972), fig. 467.