Rhode Island Furniture Archive - Yale University Art Gallery

Photo: Courtesy Westerly Public Library, inv. no. 137, photo by Christopher Gardner Click the image to enlarge	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
	Geography Probably made in Connecticut-Rhode Island border region (view a map of Rhode Island)
	Medium Maple; oak (proper-left seat rail of chair 137)
	Marks None
	Inscriptions None
	Style William and Mary
	Provenance Probably Thomas Noyes (1755–1844), Pawcatuck, Connecticut; by descent to his granddaughter, Mrs. Orson C. Rogers (n�e 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 RIF6073
	Bibliography Ellen Madison, "Finding a Niche," Early American Life 46, no. 3 (June 2015): 58, 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), 192–193, no. 24.