Chair
- Title:
- Sack-Back Windsor Rocking Chair
- Object Name:
- Chair
- Creator:
- Unknown
- Date:
- 1725-1860
- Material:
- maple, oak, various hardwoods, paint
- Dimensions:
- H-4.75 L-21 Dia-7 inches
- Description:
- Sack-back Windsor arm chair with seven spindles (on top) and flat arms. The legs have baluster-turnings. Vase-shaped stretchers on either side and one in the middle. Thick carved wooden rockers added. Remains of black paint on bottom of chair. The wooden rockers seem to have been added at a later date.
- Provenance:
- A Windsor chair is a wooden chair whose back and sides consist of multiple thin, turned spindles that are attached to a solid, sculpted seat. Its straight legs splay outward and the back reclines slightly. The chair takes its name from the English town of Windsor, where the design originated around 1710.
By the 1730s, the chair style began to appear in the American colonies. It was most likely first crafted in Philadelphia, then throughout New England and other regions. Windsors came in a variety of styles, including armchairs, side chairs, rockers, and writing chairs. The best known style is known as the "sack-back," or "hoop back," which was usually an armchair with a semi-circular back. The Windsor's popularity derived partly out of their association with the Founding Fathers, and also because they were easy to manufacture.
Cabinetmaker Francis Trumble made more than a hundred of them for the Philadelphia State House in the 1770s where the Declaration of Independence was drafted. - Subjects:
- Chairs, Furnishings, Furniture, Household equipment, Household goods, Rocking chairs
- Place of Origin:
- Rhode Island, or possibly Connecticut
- Collection Name:
- Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Hampshire
- Item Number:
- 1990.123
- Accession Number:
- 1990.123
- Type of Material:
- Objects
- Copyright Statement:
- For information regarding copyright, permissions, and reproductions contact the American Independence Museum
- Credit Line:
- American Independence Museum
- Participating Organization:
- American Independence Museum
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