image of object
Photo: Courtesy Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Bequest of Chalres L. Pendleton, 04.088; photo by Erik Gould
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Roundabout chair

Object number

RIF1096

Maker

Maker Unknown

Dimensions

44 × 30 × 25 in. (111.76 × 76.2 × 63.5 cm)

Date

1760–90

Current location

Rhode Island School of Design Museum

Geography

Probably made in Massachusetts, formerly said to have been made in Rhode Island, formerly said to have been made in New York
(view a map of Rhode Island)

Medium

Mahogany (primary); maple, pine (secondary)

Marks

Unknown

Inscriptions

Unknown

Provenance

W. Rice. Mr. ? Coleman, Portsmouth, New Hampshire; sold to Charles L. Pendleton (1846–1904), Providence, Rhode Island; bequeathed to Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, 1904

Associated names

Charles L. Pendleton

Notes

This chair has been attributed to Rhode Island and New York, however, the shape of the arm supports, the lack of a peak on the arm rail behind the handholds as well blocking where the serpentine seat rails joins the arm supports conforms more to Massachusetts chairmaking traditions. See for instance, a chair at Winterthur with a Massachusetts history of ownership, RIF2695.

Bibliography

Deanne Levison and Harold Sack, "American Roundabout Chairs," Antiques 139, no. 5 (May 1991): 940–941, pl. VIII, ill.
Eleanor H. Gustafson, "Collectors' Notes," Antiques 140, no. 1 (July 1991): 58.
Christopher P. Monkhouse and Thomas S. Michie, American Furniture in Pendleton House (Providence: Rhode Island School of Design Museum, 1986), 164, no. 105, ill.
Hedy B. Landman, "The Pendleton House at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design," Antiques 107, no. 5 (May 1975): 927.
Luke Vincent Lockwood, The Pendleton Collection (Providence: Rhode Island School of Design Museum, 1904), 303–305, fig. pl. 74.
American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Highland House Publishers, 1957–89), vol. 10, p. 83, pl. 8.