Armchair
Artist unknown
c. 1740
Medium
Walnut and upholstery
Dimensions
107.9 × 60.4 × 47.6 cm (42 1/2 × 23 3/4 × 18 3/4 in.)
Classification
seating
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
50282
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This chair was made by an English or Irish cabinetmaker who had emigrated to Philadelphia. The style of the chair successfully blends the Philadelphia Quakers’ preference for elegant simplicity and functionality with decorative flourishes that were stylish in English work of the period. Some of the decorative elements that embellish the chair are also found on a small group of early Philadelphia-Baroque, “fiddleback-splat” chairs, so named for the curve on the side of the back splat reminiscent ...