Rod-back Windsor side chair

This is an especially elegant example of a Windsor chair, with its spindled back and contoured seat. Makers of everyday American furniture of the 19th century concentrated on simplicity and functionality, using available woods. These pieces are noted for turned legs and other elements that were joined to each other with round tenons pushed into drilled holes. William Sawyer of Charlestown, Massachusetts, the owner and likely maker of this chair as part of a set commemorating his marriage in 1807, constructed a back of carved spindles that fan outward, crested with a decorative top rail.