Side chair

Painted furniture has been popular in America since first settlement. Objects like this painted chair were usually referred to as fancy at the time because of the fanciful patterns and faux finishes used to decorate them. In this fancy chair, wet yellow and green paint was smoke-grained or exposed to the smoke of a candle, resulting in sooty, almost cloudlike shapes. Decorative painters up and down the east coast admired and copied the technique. The decoration of this tour de force chair is enhanced with stenciled and freehand decoration imitating fruit, anthemia, and brass buttons.