Side Chair Maker: Unknown

1750–70

American Decorative Arts

On view, 1st floor, American Decorative Arts before 1900

This side chair is one of a set of six. The splats are pierced forming a cypher, an interlocking monogram of the initials "RML," for the original owners, Robert and Margaret Livingston. Similar mirror-image monograms can be found engraved on silver made at this time. With its wide horseshoe-shaped seat and large claw-and-ball feet, this chair is a superb example of mid-eighteenth century New York furniture.

Medium

Mahogany, white oak, white pine, beech, eastern white pine

Dimensions

41 13/16 × 18 1/8 × 19 1/2 in. (106.2 × 46 × 49.5 cm)
seat: 17 × 22 5/16 in. (43.2 × 56.7 cm)

Credit Line

Mabel Brady Garvan Collection

Accession Number

1952.20.2

Geography

Made in New York, New York

Culture

American

Period

18th century

Classification

Furniture

Disclaimer

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 records is ongoing.

Provenance
Robert R. and Margaret B. Livingston, New York, N.Y.; Roger Bacon, Exeter, N.H.; John S. Walton, New York, N.Y.; The Mabel Brady Garvan Collection
Bibliography
  • Helen A. Cooper et al., Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2008), 193–94, no. 101, ill
  • Handbook of the Collections, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 88, ill
  • Patricia E. Kane, 300 Years of American Seating Furniture Chairs and Beds from the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1976), 81-82, no. 61, ill
  • John T. Kirk, American Chairs: Queen Anne and Chippendale (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972), 112, fig. 127
  • Meyric R. Rogers, "Garvan Furniture at Yale," Connoisseur Year Book, 1960 (1960), 55, fig. 4
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

side chairs

Marks

Cypher of Robert and Mary Livingston in back

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