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Photo: Courtesy Historic New England, Boston, Museum Purchase, inv. no. 1973.27
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Side chairs, set of four

Object number

RIF839

Maker

Maker Unknown

Dimensions

42 1/16 × 21 3/4 × 16 9/16 in. (106.839 × 55.245 × 42.069 cm) Seat height: 17 5/8 in. (44.768 cm)

Date

1740–1760

Current location

Historic New England (www.historicnewengland.com), formerly Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities

Geography

Made in Newport, Rhode Island
(view a map of Rhode Island)

Medium

Maple

Marks

None

Provenance

Silas Casey (1734–1814), East Greenwich, Rhode Island; by descent to his son, Wanton Casey (1760–1842), East Greenwich, Rhode Island; by descent to his son, Silas Casey (1807–1882), Brooklyn, New York; by descent to his son, Thomas Casey (1831–1896), Washington, D.C.; by descent to his son, Edward Pearce Casey (1864–1940), New York; by descent to his niece by marriage, Phoebe McKernan (1902–1979), Washington, D.C.; sold to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England), Boston, 1973

Associated names

Silas Casey
Wanton Casey
Silas Casey
Thomas Casey
Edward Casey
Phoebe McKearnan

Construction

The back of the stiles is chamfered; the edges of the splat are beveled. No corner blocks were ever present. The chair is in excellent condition. The set has been repainted black and has new loose seats covered in modern green leather. The original seat frames also survive. Source: Brock Jobe and Myrna Kaye. , New England Furniture: The Colonial Era (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984), 351.

Notes

In addition to the history of ownership, the double ring turnings on the medial stretcher, the prominence of the rings on the side stretchers near the back legs, and the squareness of the back legs where they meet the floor suggest a Rhode Island origin.

See also

Bibliography

Brock Jobe and Myrna Kaye, New England Furniture: The Colonial Era (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984), 349–351, no. 95, ill.
Patricia E. Kane et al., Art and Industry in Early America: Rhode Island Furniture, 1650–1830, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2016), 72–73, 91n15, 258, 261nn2–3, fig. 6.