Details

Title

Side Chair

Artist/Maker

Unidentified Artist , American, New York

Date

ca. 1790–1810

Medium

Mahogany with satinwood inlay

Dimensions

Contact the museum for more information

Credit

Gift of Richard S. du Pont by exchange

Accession #

1986.102

On View

On View - Stent Family Wing, Level 3, Gallery 305

The thin, two-dimensional quality of this chair’s carving typifies Neoclassical decoration during the Federal period of American design. The delicate swags within a classical shield echo the flat decoration of wall paintings excavated in ancient Roman houses in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Roman designs made their way to America at the turn of the eighteenth century through publications by prominent English cabinetmakers Thomas Sheraton and George Hepplewhite, the latter of whom developed the shield shape used for this chair.