Great Chair

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.