EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS, 1740-1760

With exceptionally pronounced carved yoke crests and C-scroll shaping to the interior of the knees, these chairs are well-executed renditions of a form popular in mid-eighteenth-century New England. The chairs are identical in design and wood use to an example in the Rhode Island School of Design, which features later gilded decoration, and it is probable that they were all part of the same original set (see The Rhode Island Furniture Archive at the Yale University Art Gallery, RIF3474).

As noted on labels on the chairs, the pair have a recorded history of being the "parlour chairs" of Rev. William McClintock. The additional reference to a first minister of Marblehead ordained in 1675 is unclear, but the Marblehead vital records include the birth of William McClintock, son of James and Margaret, in 1724. Of the right age, he may have first owned these chairs. As noted by the chairs' owner in 1982, the pair was acquired by Dr. William Prescott (1787-1875) of Concord, New Hampshire. Prescott was an avid etymologist and collector and these chairs were probably two of the several "antique" chairs listed in his will (ancestry.com, New Hampshire, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1643-1982, vol. 55-56 (1873-1883) [database on-line], accessed December 13, 2022). Inherited by descendants of Prescott's widow and her first husband, William Dole, the chairs have remained in the Dole family until the present day.