A VERY FINE AND RARE WILLIAM AND MARY CARVED AND BLACK-PAINTED MAPLE CANED SIDE CHAIR, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, CIRCA 1725 |

Peter H. Eaton, Newton Junction, New Hampshire, March 1983;
Vogel Collection no. 387.

Overall fine condition. Wear, rubbing to the paint, and few minor losses commensurate with age and use. It appears that the side laminates of each front foot have been re-glued. Width: 17 1/2 in.; Depth: 14 1/2 in.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This chair is marked with multiple punch marks on the back stile to form the initial I. It belongs to an assorted group of variously designed caned chairs. Four other nearly identical examples survive, one at the Henry Ford Museum (acc. no. 59.82.10) one at Wenham Historical Society, Wenham, Massachusetts, one once in the Ruth and James O. Keene collection (see Ruth Keene and James O. Keene, American Folk Arts from the Collection of Ruth and James O. Keene, Detroit, MI, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1960, pp. 1, 21, no. 5) and the last in a private Pennsylvania collection (see Helen Comstock, American Furniture: Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Century Styles, (New York: Viking Press, inc., 1962), no. 37. While once attributed to the work of Gaines, they are now properly understood to be the work of a Boston chairmaker. While the carved crest is related to those present on earlier turned stile chairs, the molded stile indicates that the chair was made slightly later.  Further reinforcing this point is the existence of a cane chair with an identical back but with square cabriole legs and turned H-stretchers (see Gerald W.R. Ward, the Cabinetmaker & the Carver: Boston Furniture from Private Collections, (Boston, MA: Massachusetts Historical Society, 2013), p. 21, no. 9A) and Glenn Adamson, “The Politics of the Caned Chair,” American Furniture 2002, ed. Luke Beckerdite, (Madison, WI: Chipstone Foundation, 2002), pp. 174-206).