April. 1 9 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



i37 



Early Chairs 



By Mary H. Northend 

 Photographs by the Author 



This article on Early Chairs will be followed by one in the May number on 

 the Chairs of Chippendale, Heppelwhite and Sheraton 



HBMaa MMBaaMEHnaaHBaa jg 

 Early Dutch chair 



carved frame. One of this type is also carefully preserved in 

 the Waters collection. It was originally owned by the 

 Cogswell family of Ipswich, and was brought to America 

 by the first ancestor, John Cogswell, who came over in 

 the "Angel Gabriel." The vessel was wrecked and the 

 passengers had to go ashore, this chair being among the 

 furniture on board which was saved. 



Flemish chairs vary in design — some of them showing 

 Spanish characteristics in twisted stretchers and back posts. 

 They were made chiefly of walnut and were most elabor- 

 ately carved. 



The slat back chair came into common use about the 

 year 1700 and the number of slats used varied from two 

 to five. They were not always of the same shape — some 

 of these chairs which were made in Philadelphia were 

 curved at the back, making a much more comfortable sup- 

 port than those made perfectly straight. 



One style of this chair is known as the Carver chair, 

 and is a very valuable one, both on account of its associa- 

 tions and its good design. They are very quaint and inter- 

 esting and if possible, they should be represented in every 

 good collection. 



It lay with Benjamin Franklin, who first fitted up one of 

 these chairs with rockers, to invent the first American 

 rocking chair. With it was set a fashion which has never 



been permitted to 

 pass away. The 

 earliest style of rock- 

 ing chair was peculiar 

 in construction, for 

 the rocker itself was 

 evenly divided be- 

 tween the front and 

 the back, causing it 

 to project so far in 

 front that it was very 

 awkward, but this 

 fault was remedied 

 in those of later 

 make. The slat backs 

 were always finished 

 with turned uprights, 

 legs and under 

 braces, and some- 

 times they are seen 

 with arms. 



Contemporaneous 

 with the Slat back, 

 but never equalling it 

 in public favor is the 

 Bannister back. This 

 type belongs to the 



Early slat-back chair 



' S WE sit comfortably around the fire, seated 

 in easy chairs, how little do we think of the 

 days when there were few, if any such chairs 

 in our country. Those were the days when 

 "Forms" or stools were in vogue followed 

 later on by the settle. One or two chairs 



only were found in any household, and these were probably 

 brought over in the clumsy ships of that time — some prob- 

 ably in the Mayflower itself. 



The inventories give us practically all the information 

 to be learned about chairs and we read that few were found 

 in England prior to the year 1600, showing that they were 

 as little used in the mother land in those early times as 

 here. The first chairs that were found in America were the 

 "turned"chairs — those owned by Governor Carver stand- 

 ing first. The Elder Brewster chair came next, and speci- 

 mens of both of these types are to be seen in Pilgrim 

 Hall, at Plymouth, Massachusetts. There are few chairs 

 of this kind found to-day. One, a Carver chair, is owned 

 by John D. Long, ex-Governor of Massachusetts, and is 

 seen at his home in Hingham, while another is in the Cook- 

 Oliver House in Salem, and a third is in the Heard House 

 at Ipswich, Massachusetts. 



"Turned" chairs are to-day considered by collectors to 

 be very valuable, especially the children's high chairs which 



are shown in a great 



variety of types. The 

 turned chair was fol- 

 lowed by the Wains- 

 cot chair, which was 

 more clumsy in effect, 

 but was very sub- 

 stantial. Many of 

 these had leather 

 used for both seat 

 and back, one of this 

 style being seen in the 

 collection of the 

 Waters Family in 

 Salem, Massachus- 

 etts. The seat of the 

 chair being worn out, 

 an exact replica was 

 reproduced and is 

 still in use. 



Next in succession 

 comes the Flemish 

 chair, which is most 

 graceful in design, 

 the seat and back be- 

 ing made of cane and 

 showing a handsomely 





Early Queen Anne and slat-back chairs 



