SOUTHWESTERN RHODE ISLAND, 1785-1795

“A Beauty!” wrote Peter Goodman in his file on this chair. Others have agreed and the chair was illustrated as a “Masterpiece” by Albert Sack and described as “a dynamic and exciting piece of American Windsor furniture” by Charles Santore. Furthermore, the mate to this chair (Yale University Art Gallery, acc. no. 1930.2267) has been desribed as "sophisticated," while two others of the same design have been hailed as “a Windsor Masterpiece” and having “the posture of a ballerina.” The success of its design is due to the dramatic rake of the legs, echoed in the flaring stiles and accentuated by the undersized, deeply shaped shield seat. As argued by Nancy Goyne Evans, this chair model was made in Southwestern Rhode Island and was most likely the prototype for similar examples made later in the Rhode Island-Connecticut border region. See Albert Sack, The New Fine Points of Furniture (New York, 1993), p. 79; Charles Santore, The Windsor Style in America, 1730-1830 (Philadelphia, 1981), p. 86; Nancy Goyne Evans, American Windsor Chairs (New York, 1996), p. 311; David A. Schorsch, advertisement, Maine Antique Digest (March 1996), p. 34-E; Maine Antique Digest, Prices database, CRN Auctions, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, 28 February 2021; see also The Rhode Island Furniture Archive at the Yale University Art Gallery, RIF2197 and RIF6741.