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Chair

Culture
American
Date
1765–75
Classification
Furniture
Current Location
On View, Gallery 137
Dimensions
37 13/16 x 24 1/2 x 20 15/16 in. (96 x 62.2 x 53.2 cm)
Credit Line
Museum Purchase
Rights
Public Domain
Object Number
66:1932
NOTES
By the 1760s formal chairs were complex balances of opposites: lightness and solidity, smooth forms and deeply carved ornament. This chair is wide and the back is short and pierced to suggest interlaced straps. The lack of stretchers connecting the legs and the shaping on the lower edge of the front seat rail also lighten the overall form. Chairs like this are usually called Chippendale style, after the London furniture maker Thomas Chippendale, whose Rococo, Gothic, and Chinese-influenced designs were published between 1754 and 1762.

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