Rhode Island Furniture Archive - Yale University Art Gallery

Photo: Courtesy Rhode Island Furniture Archive; National Trust for Historic Preservation, Washington, D.C., inv. no. NT 59.59.5–.6, on loan to Preservation Society of Newport County, R.I., L.45–L.46 Click the image to enlarge	Side chairs, pair
	Object number RIF6088
	Maker Maker Unknown
	Dimensions Height: 42 in. (106.68 cm)
	Date 1740–70
	Current location
	Geography Made in Newport, Rhode Island (view a map of Rhode Island)
	Medium Maple
	Marks None
	Inscriptions “III,” incised on rabbet of front seat rail of one chair
	Provenance By descent in the Rogers family, Newport, Rhode Island; Mrs. Helena Connal-Rowan (n�e Helena de St. Prie Case), Scotland; given to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Washington, D.C.; lent to the Preservation Society of Newport County, Rhode Island
	Associated names Preservation Society of Newport County Rogers family Mrs. George Connal-Rowan
	Construction The crest rail is flat in front, with chamfered edges in back, and has arched shoulders and an incurvate center. The similarly faced upper stiles are tenoned and wood-pinned to its ends; each tenon is visible on both sides of the crest rail. The backs of the leg/stiles are alternately chamfered, then square at the seat rail, then chamfered to the midpoint of the rear stretcher, then square and rearward raking with a chamfered inside face below the side stretchers. Tenoned into the underside of the splat and into the top of the molded shoe (which overhangs the rear seat frame and is fixed to the rear seat rail with wood-filled fasteners) is a single-piece vasiform splat of serpentine profile with a slightly chamfered outside edge in the back. The rear seat rail is tenoned without wood pins to the leg/stiles. The side rails are tenoned and single-wood-pinned to the leg stiles and the front legs. The block at the top of each front leg has a slightly rounded outside corner; the scallop-skirted front rail is tenoned to them with one wood pin at each joint. The rear stretcher, doweled into the back legs, has a double ring turning at the head of its slightly conical ends. The medial stretcher, doweled into the blocked portions of the side stretchers, is similarly turned. The side stretchers include a prominent ring turning a certain distance away from the rear blocked portions, and are tenoned and wood-pinned to the rear and front legs, with pins visible on the legs? outside faces only. The front tenons are oversized and meet the front legs at their flattened ?calves.? In the rear corners of the seat frame are a rectangular block held in with glue and brads (proper left) and a shadow of a similar block (proper right). The cabriole legs end in full-disc shod pad feet. Examined by P. E. Kane and J. N. Johnson, June 6, 2014; notes compiled by T. B. Lloyd.
	Notes The slip seats are covered with 19th-century needlework.
	See also RIF839 RIF1391 RIF3298 RIF4687 RIF4878 RIF4899 RIF6087 RIF6231 RIF5963
	Bibliography 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), 261n3.