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Lot Essay
A newly discovered addition to a group of only thirteen known similar examples, this early baroque easy chair was probably made after 1725. With its counter-curved wings, double scroll arms and scalloped front seat rail, this chair is one of a transitional group of ten dating from 1710 to 1735 which combines incised, squared cabriole legs and a forward placement of the medial stretcher. The value of these chairs was in the expensive upholstery that covered the vast majority of the frame. Easy chairs, such as the one offered here, were made in small quantities and only for the most affluent and style-conscious members of colonial society.
Similar chairs are in the permanent collections of the Winterthur Museum, the Chipstone Foundation and Colonial Williamsburg (see Forman, American Seating Furniture, 1630-1730 (Winterthur, 1988), cats. 87, 89, pp.363, 365; John Walton, The Magazine Antiques (April 1974), p.652). The same stretchers appear on a related easy chair that is from the period 1695 to 1705 and is one of the earliest American easy chairs known (Forman, fig. 186, p. 358).
Similar chairs are in the permanent collections of the Winterthur Museum, the Chipstone Foundation and Colonial Williamsburg (see Forman, American Seating Furniture, 1630-1730 (Winterthur, 1988), cats. 87, 89, pp.363, 365; John Walton, The Magazine Antiques (April 1974), p.652). The same stretchers appear on a related easy chair that is from the period 1695 to 1705 and is one of the earliest American easy chairs known (Forman, fig. 186, p. 358).