The relatively large size of this great chair underscores its importance as an object of status in the seventeenth-century household. While basically a simple turned and joined form, the great chair derived its ornament and distinctive differences from the variety of turnings chosen by the craftsman as he worked the members on his lathe. He often emphasized the termination of the stiles with tall finials. Repetition of long ogee shapes, as seen here on the stiles and front posts, has been identified with chairs produced in the New Haven Colony. A Mannerist attenuation distinguishes the three vase-shaped spindles of the back.
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