image of object
Liza and Michael Moses Photographic Archive, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Click the image to enlarge

Easy chair

Object number

RIF1477

Maker

Maker, formerly attributed to John Townsend, American, 1732/33–1809
Maker Unknown

Dimensions

Height: 47 1/2 in. (120.65 cm) Width: 34 3/4 in. (88.27 cm)

Date

1780–1800

Current location

Unknown

Geography

Probably made in Newport, Rhode Island
(view a map of Rhode Island)

Medium

Mahogany (primary); maple (secondary)

Provenance

Israel Sack, Inc., New York, 1957; sold to Mrs. Richard C. Ernst (née Susan Bloomingdale, 1917–1981), New York, by 1963. Israel Sack, Inc., New York, 1976

Associated names

Israel Sack, Inc.
Mrs. Richard C. Ernst

Construction

Retains foundation upholstery

Bibliography

James Biddle, American Art from American Collections: Decorative Arts, Paintings, and Prints of the Colonial and Federal Periods from Private Collections, exh. cat. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1963), 20, no. 40.
Michael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport: The Townsends and Goddards (Tenafly, N.J.: MMI Americana Press, 1984), 53, fig. 1.42.
American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Highland House Publishers, 1957–89), vol. 1, p. 8, no. 24, ill.; vol. 5, p. 1274, P4254, ill.