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American Decorative Arts
Maker, attributed to: Richard Parkin, c.1787 - 1861
Side Chair
ca. 1825–1830
Mahogany, mahogany veneers, yellow-poplar
33 1/2 × 17 1/2 × 21 in. (85.1 × 44.5 × 53.3 cm)
Mrs. Key Cammack Fund
1984.34
The shape of this chair took its inspiration from the klismos chairs found on ancient Greece vases. The renewed interest in the classical tradition was a strong element in fashion following the Revolutionary War. References to Greece also provided an ideological link between the democratic government of ancient Athens and the structure of the United States’s new republic.
Geography:
Made in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Status:
On view*
Culture:
American
Period:
19th century
Classification:
Furniture
Bibliography:
“Acquisitions 1984,” Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin 39, no. 3 (Winter 1986): 75.
Carswell Rush Berlin, “”A Shadow of Magnitude”: The Furniture of Thomas Cook and Richard Parkin,” American Furniture (2013): 183, fig. 49.
Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
