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Photo: Courtesy of the Dallas Museum of Art, The Faith P. and Charles L. Bybee Collection, gift of Cecil and Ida Green, 1985.B.26
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Easy chair

Object number

RIF911

Maker

Maker Unknown

Dimensions

48 1/4 × 34 1/8 × 31 in. (122.555 × 86.678 × 78.74 cm) Seat height: 14 1/4 in. (36.195 cm)

Date

1750–70

Current location

Dallas Museum of Art

Geography

Probably made in Massachusetts, formerly said to have been made in Boston or Newport, Rhode Island
(view a map of Rhode Island)

Medium

Mahogany (primary); soft maple (rear legs, rear stretcher, and seat frame); cherry (side stretchers)

Provenance

John S. Walton, Inc., New York; sold to Faith P. Bybee (1900–1996) and Charles L. Bybee (1900–1972), Houston, 1960; sold by Faith P. Bybee to the Dallas Museum of Art, 1985

Associated names

Charles L. Bybee
John S. Walton, Inc.
Faith P. Bybee

Construction

The structure under the upholstery was not examined. The front and side seat rails are lap-joined together. The side stretchers join the legs with rectangular tenons. The knee brackets are nailed and glued to the seat frame. The lower section has been refinished, and the chair once had casters. Source: Charles L. Venable, American Furniture in the Bybee Collection (Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, 1989), 32, no. 13.

Bibliography

Charles L. Venable, American Furniture in the Bybee Collection (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989), 31–32, no. 13, ill.
Joan Pearson Watkins Revocable Trust, "American Antiques in the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Bybee, Part II," Antiques 93, no. 1 (January 1968): 78.