Side Chair
Samuel Gragg
American, 1772–1855
c. 1808
A side chair made of ash, oak, maple, and beech in which the maker used thin, bent wooden members to form a high, flowing back and a lightweight seat that aim for comfort and refined simplicity.
What immediately strikes you is the sinuous, ribbon-like quality of the parallel slats as they curve from seat to crest, producing a skeletal, airy silhouette of repeating lines and long negative spaces.
An early American experiment in bending and slender joinery that anticipates later 19th-century bentwood seating and a shift from heavy, carved furniture toward lighter, more ergonomic forms.
Medium
Ash, oak, maple, and beechwood
Dimensions
33 x 18 1/2 x 29 1/4" (83.8 x 47 x 74.3 cm), seat h. 16 3/4" (42.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Marshall Cogan Purchase Fund
Accession
282.1984
Palette
Exhibitions
