image of object
From: Benno M. Forman, American Seating Furniture, 1630-1730 (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1988), 366
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Easy chair

Object number

RIF1749

Maker

Maker Unknown

Dimensions

47 × 33 1/4 × 21 1/2 in. (119.38 × 84.455 × 54.61 cm) Seat Height: 13 in. (33.02 cm)

Date

1750–80

Current location

Colonel Daniel Putnam Association

Geography

Probably made in Massachusetts, or possibly made in Rhode Island
(view a map of Rhode Island)

Medium

Walnut (primary); maple (seat rails, stiles, arms, arm supports, front and top of wings, crest rail, and lower back rail); oak (cones)

Style

Queen Anne

Provenance

Godfrey Malbone (1724–1785), Newport, Rhode Island, and Brooklyn, Connecticut; by descent to Mary Putnam Fogg (1843–1928), Brooklyn, Connecticut; bequeathed to Mary Putnam Clewly, Brooklyn, Connecticut; given to the Colonel Daniel Putnam Association, Brooklyn, Connecticut, 1928

Associated names

Godfrey Malbone
Mary Putnam Fogg
Mary Putnam Clewley

Construction

The crest rail has an arched and chamfered top edge and a flat bottom edge and is tenoned, without wood pins, to the rear stiles, which are rectangular in plan and continuous with the rear legs. Below the seat frame the leg/stiles rake rearward and are alternately square, chamfered and square again from where the turned rear stretcher is doweled into them to the bottom. The stay rail and rear seat rail are tenoned into the leg/stiles without wood pins. The blocked and turned side stretchers are tenoned into the rear and front legs without wood pins. The medial stretcher is replaced. The side seat rails are also tenoned into the rear leg/stiles. The front legs appear to join the seat frame by means of large tenons set back from their knees, which are set into mortises in the seat rail. The joints between the side and front seat rails are not visible. Its asymmetrical shape suggests that the back edge of the front seat rail might have been a craftsman?s error. The volute-carved cabriole front legs, which are missing their knee brackets, end in pad feet; the front portion of the proper right foot is missing. The chair retains its original foundation and show cover. Examined by P. E. Kane and J. N. Johnson, August 24, 2011; notes compiled by T. B. Lloyd.

Bibliography

Benno M. Forman, American Seating Furniture,1630–1730: An Interpretive Catalogue (New York: W. W. Norton, 1988), 366, fig. 191.