Connecticut, Rhode Island, or possibly Nantucket, late 18th/early 19th century, scrolled arms carved with acanthus leaves, curved crest rail ears carved with fruit and leaf, unusual rope twist carved back and sides of plank seat, early black paint with gold trim, ring turned spindles, 41 x 23-1/2 x 25 in., seat height 17-1/2 in.

Literature: This chair is published in Charles Santore, The Windsor Style in America, Volumes I and II, ed. by Thomas M. Voss, 1997, p. 243, fig. 273.

Note: Per Charles Santore's catalog entry in The Windsor Style in America, Volumes I and II, "this beautifully turned fan-back armchair has many interesting characteristics. The gold decoration, rope carving on the back seat edge, leaf carving on the handholds, and floral and rope carving on the crest all suggest a nautical motif. The architecture of the chair relates to a small group of fan-backs with arms that were produced in Connecticut at the beginning of the 19th century. These chairs are similar in their shorter backs and mortised cyma-curved arms as demonstrated in Charles Santore, The Windsor Style in America Volume I, fig 86. The unusual urn-shaped neoclassic turning patterns are similar to those of another group of Connecticut decorative Windsors found in the Westbrook area (see Vol. I, fig, 77). The turned pipestem spindles, arm shaping and concave vase termainations on the legs are characteristic of many fine Windsors from Newport, Rhode Island, up through coastal Massachusetts. This chair is a wonderful stylistic hybrid that probably could only have been produced by a coastal chairmaker.

Provenance: Collection of Dr. George and Connie Manger

Literature: This chair is illustrated in "Living with Antiques: A Middle-Atlantic Collection of Collections" by John C. Newcomer, Antiques Magazine, May 1999, p. 743, pl. XIX.