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Photo: Courtesy Rhode Island Furniture Archive
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Side chair

Object number

RIF6363

Maker

Maker Unknown

Dimensions

36 3/8 × 21 1/8 × 19 1/8 in. (92.39 × 53.66 × 48.58 cm) Height, seat: 16 1/2 in. (41.91 cm)

Date

1790–1810

Current location

Gary R. Sullivan Antiques, Inc.

Geography

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

Medium

Mahogany; cherry (rear rail); maple (front and side rails); yellow poplar (cross braces)

Marks

None

Inscriptions

None

Style

Hepplewhite, Federal

Provenance

A Providence, Rhode Island, estate, 2017; sold to Gary R. Sullivan Antiques, Inc., Sharon, Massachusetts

Associated names

Providence estate

Construction

The serpentine crest rail is flat in front (beaded at the top edge) and convex (almost pointed) in back. The serpentine leg/stiles are similarly faced above the seat, tenoned to the crest without wood pins, square, slightly rearward and inward raking below the seat, and very slightly chamfered on the inside faces below the side stretchers. Tenoned into the crest rail above and the three-sided molded shoe fixed with wood-filled fasteners to the rear seat rail below is a vasiform openwork splat containing a variety of foliate carving, swags, and curvilinear uprights. The veneered rear seat rail is tenoned without wood pins to the rear legs. The rear, side, and medial stretchers are similarly joined to their respective neighboring elements. There are shadows of glue blocks in some corners of the seat frame, in each corner of which is a diagonal strut set into grooves (each laid out with a single vertical scribe line) in adjacent seat rails. The underside of one strut contains two small nails. The inside corner of each leg is slightly chamfered. Examined by P.E. Kane, March 16, 2017; notes compiled by T.B. Lloyd.