Side chair

The pierced back-splat and carved ball-and-claw feet on this chair relate to those illustrated in the best known pattern book of the 18th century, Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director. Available in the Colonies soon after being published in London in 1754, the Director -and English furniture inspired by it-was tremendously influential on both sides of the Atlantic. The elongated lancet arches carved into this back-splat are less common in America than in England, where Chippendale Gothic designs proved more popular. Like the Japanned side chair also on view in this gallery, this chair was originally owned by Levi Lincoln, Governor of Massachusetts from 1808-1809. Mrs. Huntington Brown, one of Lincoln's descendants, brought it with her to Minnesota in the early twentieth century.