PHILADELPHIA, CIRCA 1735

With an old surface and rare shaped stretchers, this side chair is an important survival of Philadelphia chairmaking from the 1730s or 1740s. A closely related chair, also with double peaks in the upper corners of the vase splat, flat stretchers with the same shaping and identical paneled feet, was almost certainly made in the same shop. Its straight skirt and lambrequin-carved knees, however, illustrate different decorative options (William MacPherson Hornor, Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture (Washington D.C., 1935), pl. 300).