BOSTON, 1715-1740

With rear stiles that sweep back above the seat, this side chair illustrates a "crook'd back," a term first documented in America by the Boston upholsterer, Thomas Fitch, in 1723. Made in Boston and exported throughout the colonies, such chairs invariably feature a geometric crest and Spanish front feet, as seen on this example, and were a stylistic development of "carved topp'd" chairs, which had pierced C-scroll carved crests, straight stiles and turned feet. See Benno M. Forman, American Seating Furniture, 1630-1730 (Winterthur, DE, 1988), pp. 281, 285-286, 333-340, cats. 75-77).