ATTRIBUTED TO LANGLEY BOARDMAN, PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE, CIRCA 1800

With its bold form, serpentine front rail, and high-peaked crest rail, this exceptional easy chair is in keeping with a group of related chairs documented and/or attributed to Portsmouth, New Hampshire chairmakers (see Brock Jobe, Portsmouth Furniture: Masterworks from the New Hampshire Seacoast (SPNEA, 1993). Jobe attributes one closely related example (p. 365, no. 101A) to Langley Boardman, who slightly adapted the designs he learned as an apprentice in the Salem area. In 1803, Boardman supplied Portsmouth merchant James Rundlet with the chair, charging him $15. The chair offered here has apparently period pencil inscriptions, which may refer to the original price of the chair. These chairs share numerous details such as the high-peaked back, tapered legs, arm supports that are set back from the front rail on tenoned vertical posts, choice of secondary woods, dimensions, and the mortise and tenon construction of the frame is achieved largely without the use of pegs through the tenons. Other related easy chairs include Jobe, catalog numbers 104 and 104A. The bellflower inlay of the legs is apparently unique among the published group, and is an important addition to the works attributed to Boardman.