Object Details
Object Essay
Thomas Chippendale’s designs for “ribband-back” chairs, first published in the 1754 edition of The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director, are among the most intricate and seemingly difficult to execute, which may account for their rarity today. No American examples are known that derive directly from Chippendale’s “ribband-back” design, but this set of Philadelphia chairs represents a close attempt. The effect of shirred ribbons is unusually naturalistic, although their thickness and strict confinement within the scrolled outline of the splat depart from the delicacy associated with English designs.1Fitz-Gerald 1970, no. 70. The chair back may derive from British chairs imported to this country; the lower half of the splat, for example, is found on at least one other set of Philadelphia chairs and on their English counterparts.2Fales 1976, no. 91. A British version is illustrated in Kirk 1982, no. 1007.
The design of the reverse scrolled arms on a related commode chair at Winterthur reflects an early Georgian pattern rarely used in this country, although other armchairs in the same pattern are more conventional.3The set of six chairs is published in Sack 1987, 165. For similar illustrations, see Downs 1952, no. 38, and Kindig, no. 41. Even within this large, assembled set of six chairs, minor variations occur, such as the ruffled hole at the base of the splat (others are solid) and the alternating curl of the asymmetrical leaf at the center of the cartouche on the crest rail and at the base of the splat.4Chairs from the same or related sets in the Garvan Collection at the Yale University Art Gallery, Kane 1976, no. 96; the Brooklyn Museum, Comstock 1962, no. 266; and one sold at Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, Sale 3947, January 26–29, 1977, Lot 1135.
Thomas S. Michie
Excerpted from Clement E. Conger, et al. Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1991.