An Important William and Mary Carved and Figured Maple Armchair, Boston or Ipswich, Massachusetts circa 1720

Lacking retaining strips for slip seat, lacking original slip seat, fitted with later supporting blocks for newer slip seat, appliqués to front feet lacking, chair has been refinished but retains a warm mellow honey color and good surface around ram horn arms, lacking slip seat and foot facings, arms shifted slightly lower on rear stiles and the gap has been wedged.
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.

Gifted to the First Parish Church in Cohasset, Massachusetts, this important armchair relates directly to the largest group of caned seating furniture made in America.  This group is typically referred to as the "I" group because a majority of surviving examples have a punched I on the back stile of the chair. 

The foliate carved crest rail and seat rails relate very closely to a caned side chair in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (figure 1) and another in a private collection.¹  The currently offered lot differs from the I group in having a solid vasiform splat.  The splat's profile is identical however to that of a unique pair of crooked-back caned side chairs that have the splat divided with a caned central section (see figure 2).²  

A possible attribution to John Gaines III can not be over looked. The crest rail's foliate carving is the most exuberant of any of this group and relates to carving present on chairs attributed to the Gaines shop. Further, the slip-in seat frame design with small ledges nailed to the upper leg squares for its support is a characteristic of the Gaines shop. Lastly the medial incised line along arm's length is quite reminiscent of the central grove present on the central lobe of Gaines brush feet.³

¹ Frances Gruber Safford, American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: I. Early Colonial Period, The Seventeenth-Century and William and Mary Styles, (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007), pp. 88-90 and Glenn Adamson, "The Politics of the Caned Chair", American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite, (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 2002), pp. 193, fig. 24. For a discussion on the I group see Benno M. Forman, American Seating Furniture: 1630-1730, An Interpretaitive Catalogue, (New York, W. W. Norton & Co., 1988), pp.258-267, no. 54.
² Adamson, pp. 200-1, fig. 35 and Skinner, Boston, Massachusetts, American Furniture and Decorative Arts, February 18, 2007, lot 229 sold for $110,500.
³ Safford, pp. 97-99, no. 36.