Side Chair

Unknown

1765–90 · Mahogany, maple, white pine · The American Wing

These chairs are among the finest of all Boston seating furniture in the Rococo style. The design of their back is taken verbatim from plate 9 of Robert Manwaring's modest pattern book The Cabinet and Chair-Maker's Real Friend and Companion, which was published in London in 1765, and available in Boston by January 1767. But whereas Manwaring's chair design had plain straight legs and was considered of modest scale and importance, the Boston maker considered his handiwork top of the line and added elegantly carved cabriole legs and claw-and-ball feet.

Artist

Unknown

Date

1765–90

Medium

Mahogany, maple, white pine

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. Paul Moore, 1939