Corner Chamber Chair
Maker
William Savery
Period1750 - 1770
MediumMaple, and pine
Dimensions37 × 21 × 19.25 in. (94 × 53.3 × 48.9 cm)
InscribedA handwritten adhesive label originally glued to chair underside and now in the object file reads "Round-a-bout Chair / belonged to Samuel / Smith (Historian of / New Jersey / Federic [sic] Boyd / Oct. 1930."
ClassificationsSeating Furniture
Credit LineGift of Mrs. J. Amory Haskell, 1936
Object number1991.644
DescriptionA commode corner chair that features a curved horseshoe-shaped crest rail ending in voluted hand rests. Three columnar turnings support the arms and crest rail. Two vase shaped splats with sharply beveled edges set into molded shoes. Plain rails frame the seat, which is supported by three baluster turned stiles and a single front chamfered cabriole leg ending in an angular pad foot. Turned baluster stretchers connect in a criss-cross fashion. The chair's slip seat is covered in modern polychrome wool flamestitch crewelwork, but the original foundation upholstery survives underneath. When the slip seat is removed, accommodation for a chamber pot is revealed. A lower board resting on framing attached to the seat rails holds the pot. A second thick board which rests on the inner edge of the seat rails has a bevel-edged circular hole cut into the center that serves as a seat over the pot.Curatorial RemarksThis exceptional corner chair was studied extensively by the late Benno M. Forman (1930 - 1982), A Research Fellow and Teaching Associate for the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture. He also published a lengthy assessment of it in an article on Delaware Valley chairs that appeared in the Winterthur Portfolio, Spring 1980. Forman's text is quoted below, with editing. "This extraordinary chair has a "crooked" front leg that is made from the same pattern as a labeled William Savery chair. The termini of the stretchers likewise have the characteristic bulbous shape of the front stretcher of the labeled example. The stretchers on the corner chair have been protected from wear by their criss-cross arrangement. They are also handsomely ornamented with baluster shapes closely related in form to the arm supports of another chair attributed to Savery. None of these features, which serve to relate this chair to the more conventional examples from Savery's shop, is as important to the connoisseur as the turned legs on which these better-known elements are combined: a cylindrical leg with a scored line at the point where the cylinder begins to round off in its transition to the foot; a distinctive "bun" shaped foot around which two lines are scored at the widest point; and a fillet, a hollow, and a downward flaring collar in the shape of the molding known as a "beak" between the leg and the foot. Savery probably absorbed the last set of features into his design vocabulary while an apprentice with Solomon Fussell, as the detail on a Fussell arm support suggests. Each turning on the corner chair legs is done with consummate mastery, attention to detail, and a great deal of nicety. The same is true of the columnar arm supports, each of which has a shockingly low, crisply articulated collarino. These turnings hint that the slat-back, rush-bottomed armchairs of the Savery school sometimes had columnar rather than baluster-shaped arm supports. The keynote of the corner chair is crispness: each ring is set off by crisp fillets, each turned form stops crisply before the next element begins. The chair, in short, represents the work of a master turner at the height of his powers, enjoying the proficiency that practice has willy-nilly bred into his hand. One aspect of the corner chair indicates that the shop in which it was created was more than a turner's shop: the seat frame is made in the joiner's fashion, with pinned mortises and tenons." A recent evaluation of the corner chair by Philip D. Zimmerman, an American furniture historian and consultant, confirmed that the chamfering on the leg is of the type used by William Savery, along with the points that appear on the splats.NotesAs the Haskell collection adhesive label from the underside of the chair states, "Round-a-bout Chair / belonged to Samuel / Smith (Historian of / New Jersey / Federic [sic] Boyd / Oct. 1930." Samuel Smith (1720 - 1776) of Burlington, Burlington County, enjoyed a distinguished political career. He served as treasurer of the Western Division of the Colony of New Jersey from 1750 to 1775, as a justice of the peace, as a member of New Jersey's Council from 1763 to 1775, and as mayor of Burlington. In addition, he took a key role in the establishment of an Indian reservation in Brotherton, Burlington County, was an active member of the Society of Friends, and became a historian who gathered early documents for histories on New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the Society of Friends in those two colonies. His book, The History of the Colony of Nova Caesaria or New Jersey . . . to the Year 1721. With Some Particulars Since; and a Short View of its Present State, was published in 1765 by James Parker in Burlington. It remains an invaluable source of information on the early years of New Jersey.
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