Lot Essay
A graceful combination of curved and straight lines, this lolling chair exemplifies the lightness and restrained elegance of Massachusetts furniture of the Federal era. This chair is one of three known examples with unusual carved rosette medallions and triple-beading along the outer edges of the arms. The two related examples are: one formerly in the Taradash Collection, sold in these rooms, The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eddy Nicholson, 27 and 28 January 1995, lot 1158; and one in the collection of Yale University Art Gallery, illustrated in Patricia E. Kane, 300 Years of Seating Furniture (New Haven, 1982), cat. 209, pp. 224-225. Like the chair offered here, the Yale example is made of mahogany whereas the ex-Nicholson example is made of birch.