Rhode Island Furniture Archive - Yale University Art Gallery

Photo: Courtesy Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, Del., 1956.0010.002 Click the image to enlarge	Spindle-back armchair
	Object number RIF1748
	Maker Maker Unknown
	Dimensions 43 1/8 � 24 5/8 � 18 in. (109.538 � 62.548 � 45.72 cm)
	Date 1670–1710
	Current location Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library
	Geography or made in Westerly, Rhode Island, or made in Newport, Rhode Island, or made in Kingstown, Rhode Island (view a map of Rhode Island)
	Medium Soft maple
	Marks None
	Inscriptions None
	Provenance Possibly Joseph Clarke (1618–1694), Newport, and Westerly, Rhode Island, or his son Joseph Clarke (1643–1727), Westerly; by descent to William Case Clarke, South Kingstown, Rhode Island; by descent to his son, Col. George Clinton Clarke (1804–1787), South Kingstown, Rhode Island; by descent to his son, William Case Clarke (1841–1902), Wakefield and South Kingstown, Rhode Island; by descent to his son, William Case Clarke (1878–1963), South Kingstown, Rhode Island and West Woodstock, Connecticut; sold to Harry Arons, Ansonia, and Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1955; sold to Winterthur Museum, Delaware, 1956
	Associated names Joseph Clarke Joseph Clarke William Case Clarke Col. George Clinton Clarke William Case Clarke William Case Clarke Case and Clarke family Harry Arons
	Construction The turned leg/stiles have reel- and ball-turned tops, some slightly vasiform turnings as well as incised rings below, and are circular in plan from just above the lower back rail to the bottom. The leg/stiles are joined by three turned, ring-incised rails doweled and tenoned into them. The rails are joined to each other by two sets of three tapering ball-, ring- and vasiform-turned spindles doweled into them. The rails of the rush-covered seat are also doweled and wood-pinned to the rear leg/stiles as well as to the front legs, which are turned in a manner similar to the leg/stiles. The turned sloping arms are doweled and wood-pinned to the rear leg/stiles and the tops of the front legs. The simply turned rear and side stretchers are doweled into their respective legs, as is the ring- and vase-turned upper front stretcher. The lower front stretcher is doweled and wood-pinned to the front legs. The feet were formerly fitted with casters. Examined by P. E. Kane and J. N. Johnson, May 7, 2014; notes compiled by T. B. Lloyd.
	See also RIF2005 RIF3411 RIF4149 RIF4791
	Bibliography Benno M. Forman, American Seating Furniture,1630–1730: An Interpretive Catalogue (New York: W. W. Norton, 1988), 108–109, no. 8, ill. Robert F. Trent, "New Insights on Early Rhode Island Furniture," American Furniture (1999): 215–217, fig. 11. 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), 143–144, no. 4.