Armchair

This chair, with its turned stretchers joining the legs, baluster-shaped turnings under the arms, and woven rush seat, suggests earlier chairmaking traditions. A less expensive alternative to Philadelphia's elaborately carved mahogany chairs, examples such as this were typically enlivened by the application of a brown, black, orange, or red color, as the buyer preferred. This chair was likely colored a dark reddish brown originally. Chairmaker Solomon Fussel and his apprentice William Savery established a long tradition in Philadelphia for reasonably priced chairs.