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Colonial Homes in Design of Early American Colonial FurnitureHistory of Early American Colonial Furniture

 

Turned armchair. The construction designed was the turner's attempt to impart kory comfort by raking the back slightly. 1650. This chair descended in the Strykerfamily, of New York. 17th century. Blair,  The Metropolitan Museum of Art,New York, Rogers Fund, 1941.

Joined 'great' chair (wainscot armchair) early American colonial furniture. The carved decoration, as elaborate as can be found on these chairs, mixes medieval, Renaissance and Baroque motifs. Attributed to Thomas Dennis (about 1638-1706) or an apprentice. Red (American) and white oak. Essex County, Massachusetts. The Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts.

Early American colonial furniture Slat back chairs were a variation of the all-turned chair. Two specimens having the more ample turnings that are associated with the turnery of the 17th century may be seen at the American Museum in Britain. A slat back armchair at Winterthur has the higher back and the ball-and-disc turnings that characterized some of these chairs after about 1700. That tall slatted chairs date at least from the first years of the century is indicated by an oil sketch of about 1705 in which Johannes Kelpies is shown seated at a table in one of these chairs. All sorts of turned chairs were produced in America from this early period down to the present century, and assigning the usual two to three decade period of manufacture must be qualified in view of the continued popularity of these early American colonial furniture chairs and of the turner's or chairmaker's ability to turn out' most of the shapes made by his predecessors.

More kinds of craftsmen were engaged in manufacturing chairs and other seats than any other form of furniture: joiners, turners, carpenters, cabinetmakers, chairmakers, cane chairmakers, upholsterers, and possibly carvers were capable of producing part or all of certain kinds of early American colonial furniture seats. The proliferation of crafts began occurring at about the time of the Restoration in 1660, so that the older idea of the maker of chairs as principally a joiner or turner rapidly became less tenable. For example, English upholsterers sold upholstered seats like the chair illustrated with a turkey­work back and seat to buyers in England and the colonies.

Chair-table, a hybrid combining the functions of a chair, table and chest (a drawer under the seat). White oak and pine. New England. 1675-1700. Length of top 53 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Mrs Russell Sage, 1909.

Oil sketch of the mystic, Johannes Kelpies (died 1708), seated in a slat back Slat back armchair, a try armchair of the type shown in the next illustration. Oil on canvas. Philadelphia. from the 1690s into the 1 About 1705. Height 9 in. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. century. Maple, hickory, seat. Possibly Pennsylvania 1700-1740 or later. The Henry Francis
du Pont Winterthu Museum, Delaware.

Slat back armchair, a type popular from the 1690s into the 19th century. Maple, hickory, with rush seat. Possibly Pennsylvania. 1700- 1740 or later. The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Delaware.