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Photo: Courtesy Westerly Public Library, inv. no. 137, photo by Christopher Gardner
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Banister-back side chairs, pair

Object number

RIF128

Maker

Maker Unknown

Dimensions

45 1/2 × 19 × 16 1/2 in. (115.57 × 48.26 × 41.91 cm)

Date

1720–40

Current location

Westerly Public Library and Wilcox Park

Geography

Probably made in
(view a map of Rhode Island)

Medium

Maple; oak (proper-left seat rail of chair 137)

Marks

None

Inscriptions

None

Provenance

Probably Thomas Noyes (1755–1844), Pawcatuck, Connecticut; by descent to his granddaughter, Mrs. Orson C. Rogers (née Mary Noyes, 1846–1938), Westerly, Rhode Island; bequeathed to Westerly Public Library, Rhode Island, 1938

Associated names

Thomas Noyes
Mary Noyes Rogers

Construction

Each chair has a triple-arched, pierced, and elaborately molded crest rail with chamfered edges, tenoned and through-pinned to elaborately turned stiles. The back of the crest rail is flat. Tenoned into the bottom of the crest rail and the top of the lower rail are five split spindles turned in the manner of the stiles. The lower rail has chamfered edges, a double-serpentine skirt, is pierced and elaborately molded, and tenoned and wood-pinned to the flanking stiles. The back of the lower rail is flat. Rosehead nails have been used to repair the center stile of each chair. The seat rails, covered in rush, are doweled into their neighboring legs. Simply turned side stretchers and a rear stretcher are doweled into the legs. Two flat-backed, deeply molded, pierced front stretchers with chamfered front edges are tenoned and wood-pinned to the front legs. Examined by P. E. Kane and J. N. Johnson, April 16, 2014; notes compiled by T. B. Lloyd.

See also

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), 192–193, no. 24.
Ellen Madison, "Finding a Niche," Early American Life 46, no. 3 (June 2015): 58, ill.