NEWPORT, 1780-1800

The only known Newport easy chair with both double-scrolled arms and stop-fluted legs, this easy chair is further distinguished by its survival with part of its original upholstery foundation. Each comprising a horizontal and a vertical conical support that are joined by an outscrolling C-scroll, the chair's arms reflect designs most commonly used during the Queen Anne and Chippendale periods by Philadelphia chairmakers. While such double-scrolled arms are also seen on New England chairs from the William and Mary era, their presence on a Newport Chippendale chair from the late eighteenth century most likely indicates the influence of Philadelphia designs in Rhode Island furniture. One means of transmission was through the importation of goods. Providence merchant John Brown (1736-1803) is known to have ordered and owned seating forms from Philadelphia, including an easy chair with horizontal conical scrolls (but lacking the vertical scrolls), and his furnishings may have inspired local craftsmen, such as the Providence or Newport maker of an easy chair with double-scrolled arms, cabriole legs and lacking stretchers also owned by Brown (Morrison H. Heckscher, "Form and Frame: New Thoughts on the American Easy Chair," The Magazine Antiques (December 1971), p. 892; Wendy A. Cooper, "The Purchase of Furniture and Furnishings by John Brown, Provident Merchant, Part I: 1760-1788," The Magazine Antiques (February 1973), pp. 328-329, figs. 1-4; The Rhode Island Furniture Archive at the Yale University Art Gallery, RIF844; for a Boston William and Mary easy chair with double-scrolled arms, see Christie's New York, Important American Furniture, Folk Art, Silver and Chinese Export, 20 January 2012, lot 103).

The stop-fluted design of the legs may also have been inspired by Philadelphia models and John Brown's interior furnishings. As noted by Morrison H. Heckscher, straight-leg furniture in the Chippendale style was rarely seen in America, but in addition to Newport, appears in the form of Marlborough legs from Philadelphia dating to the 1770s. The stop-fluted refinement, favored in Rhode Island, was practiced by cabinetmaker John Townsend (1733-1809) in the late 1780s and he is often associated with the style. Evidence indicates that other furniture craftsmen employed the design, including the unknown maker of stop-fluted sofas and a card table made for John Brown. Brown is also thought to have owned an easy chair with single-scrolled arms that is otherwise similar to the chair offered here. Other related forms include examples in the collections of Bayou Bend, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Morrison H. Heckscher, John Townsend Newport Cabinetmaker (New Haven, Connecticut, 2005), p. 140; Cooper, p. 333, figs. 9, 10; The Rhode Island Furniture Archive at the Yale University Art Gallery, RIF162, RIF236 and RIF4639; for other stop-fluted easy chairs with evidence of original upholstery, see Ibid., RIF 1477 and RIF 368).