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Photo: Courtesy Nathan Liverant and Son, Colchester, Conn.
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Side chairs, pair

Object number

RIF5740

Maker

Maker Unknown

Dimensions

38 × 21 × 17 in. (96.52 × 53.34 × 43.18 cm) Height, seat: 17 1/2 in. (44.45 cm)

Date

1791

Current location

Private Collection

Geography

Possibly made in South Kingstown, Rhode Island
(view a map of Rhode Island)

Medium

Mahogany (primary); maple (seat rails and corner braces); birch (seat rails and corner braces); yellow poplar (corner braces)

Marks

None

Inscriptions

None

Provenance

Nathan Liverant and Son, Colchester, Connecticut, 2013

Associated names

Nathan Liverant and Son

Construction

Each chair has a steeply arched, beaded crest rail which is flat in front, rounded in back, and joined to the slightly serpentine, similarly decorated stiles in mortise and tenon joints, each showing one wood through-pin at each shoulder. The splat consists of four serpentine uprights, the outer ones volute-incised, centering an incised upright supporting a carved "Prince of Wales feathers" figure. It is tenoned into the rear seat rail and flanked by incurvate elements. There are diagonal braces at each corner of the seat frame, set into the top of adjoining seat rails. The seat rails meet each other and their respective legs in mortise and tenon joints, each showing one wood pin. The rectilinear stretchers meet their respective legs in mortise and tenon joints, showing one wood pin each. The side stretchers are set just inward of the outside faces of the square, tapering front legs and the rear legs, which are square, chamfered at the inside corner and swell slightly at the bottom, where they are slightly chamfered. The medial stretcher meets the side stretchers in half-dovetail joints. Examined by P.E. Kane and J.N. Johnson, May 24, 2013; notes compiled by T.B. Lloyd

Notes

These chairs match a set of eight chairs (see RIF866), given by Governor George Brown (1746–1836), South Kingstown, Rhode Island, to his daughter on her marriage in 1791.

See also

Bibliography

"Nathan Liverant and Son advertisement," Antiques 180, no. 2 (March–April 2013): back cover, ill.
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), 421n1.