Chair
- Object Name:
- Chair
- Object ID:
- 1977.062
- Place of Origin:
- Portsmouth, NH
- Date:
- circa 1800
- Description:
- Side Chair. Unidentified maker, Portsmouth, NH; c. 1800. "Rod-back" Windsor type, with bowed and pierced crest rail, basically rectangular in shape, tenoned through turned cylindrical stiles. Stiles curve back sharply and are each decorated with encircling grooves, one 4 1/4 inches above seat and a pair just below rounded top of stile. Seven vertical, turned and tapering spindles, with encircling grooves corresponding to those on stiles. Slightly hollowed oval seat of probably basswood, with some horseshoe shaping. Stiles and spindles tenoned into back of seat following its rounded outline, stiles being tenoned through seat. Horseshoe curved portion of seat has rounded upper edge and beveled lower edge. Entire seat outlined by a decorative groove, with secondary grooves following the curved line of spindles at their inner edge and extending around front of seat at top of rounded edge. Four splayed, bamboo-turned legs, tapered at ends. Four plain, turned stretchers--front, back and sides--that at front having oval element at center, the others each decorated by two encircling grooves. Painted brown with off-white striping and remains of scroll and stylized floral designs on front of seat and on oval at center of front stretcher. Old handwritten paper label pasted on bottom of seat, reading: "THIS IS ONE OF THE SET OF 'BEST ROOM' CHAIRS BOUGHT BY ENSIGN WM JONES WHEN HE MARRIED CLARISSA CUSHING IN JUNE 1798. THEY WENT TO PORTSMOUTH TO BUY THEM". Upper right corner of label broken off, but preserved in Accession File. Paint worn on stiles, sides of seat, front stretcher and bottom of front feet. Gouge on front of left stile, indentation on face of crest at right, and checks in two legs. Wood of stretchers, where visible, probably ash. Other turned parts appear to be birch. Probably birch, ash and basswood.
- Material:
- Wood
Birch
Ash
Basswood - Dimensions:
- H-32.375 W-19.25 D-19.25 inches
- Provenance:
- Acquired by the donor in 1928 from Lynde Sullivan, then owner of the Gen. John Sullivan house in Durham. Note that William Jones may have been related to Levi Jones of Milton, whose second wife was the niece of John Sullivan's wife.
- Credit Line:
- Gift of Lewis M. Stark
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