Skip to main content
Advanced Search
Continuous Bow Windsor Arm Chair
Continuous Bow Windsor Arm Chair
Continuous Bow Windsor Arm Chair

Continuous Bow Windsor Arm Chair

Period1780 - 1800
MediumMaple and ash
Dimensions38.13 × 22.75 × 21.75 in. (96.8 × 57.8 × 55.2 cm)
ClassificationsSeating Furniture
Credit LineGift of Mrs. J. Amory Haskell, 1936
Object number1992.511
DescriptionA brace-back style maple frame includes a curved and shaped continuous back ending in flat scroll arm rest terminals, thirteen taper turned spindles, and two heavier baluster turned arm supports. Two taper turned spindles flare from the small brace tab at the rear of the seat and fit into the underside of the continuous back. The solid saddle seat rests atop four baluster turned and splayed legs braced with a bulbous turned "H" shaped stretcher assembly. The present dark green painted finish covers an earlier green coat of paint, and an even earlier layer of blue or gray.
NotesThe Windsor arm chair descended in the Taylor family of Middletown to Miss Mary Holmes Taylor (1850 - 1930), the last to reside in Orchard Home, a large and stately structure built in 1853 at the northern end of Kings Highway in Middletown village, Monmouth County. Orchard Home, now called the Taylor-Butler House, is owned by the Association. The property included Marlpit Hall, an adjacent landmark structure and Taylor ancestral home that was built in part in 1686 and enlarged greatly about 1756. As per the will of Miss Taylor, all of Orchard Home's contents, including its inherited Taylor heirlooms, were sold at auction on 20 August 1931. The auction advertisement in the Red Bank Register listed Windsor chairs. Mrs. J. Amory Haskell, a pre-eminent Americana collector who also lived in Middletown, purchased the chair, and in 1936 gave it to the Association for display at Marlpit Hall, the historic house which she had restored and presented fully furnished to the organization in that year. Accession records described the chair as "1 Low-back Windsor chair, painted green, brace back. It belonged to Mary Holmes Taylor," For a more extended discussion of Miss Mary Holmes Taylor and the 1931 auction, see accession number 20. Numerous photographs of people posed on the front porch of Orchard Home captured between 1886 and 1894 by Edward Taylor (1848 - 1911), Mary's brother, show that this Windsor arm chair had become part of the outdoor furniture. One view taken on 2 September 1886 depicts four women who went on a trip together to Niagara Falls. Mary is on the extreme right holding a poster. The Windsor arm chair appears in the left background.
Collections
ProvenanceBy descent in the Taylor family of Middletown, Monmouth County, to Miss Mary Holmes Taylor (1850 - 1930); sold at auction on 20 August 1931; purchased by Mrs. J. Amory Haskell.