Decorative arts

Carver Chair

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Type: Decorative arts(Opens in new tab)
Date: ca. 1690
Accession number: L2015.41.98
Maker: Unknown, American(Opens in new tab) (American)
Dimensions: 45 x 26 1/2 x 20 in. (114.3 x 67.3 x 50.8 cm.)
Medium: maple, ash, and red stain
Description: A large turned or ‘Carver’ chair, in maple and ash with boldly turned finials, tow banks of turned spindles, ball-turnings on the back posts, and ‘mushroom’ handholds on front legs. A massive chair with 2-1/2 inch posts and 45-1/2 inches tall - in an old 19th century red stain with no repair or restoration. While it lacks the traditional turned elements of North Shore, Massachusetts chairs, and the double bank of spindles is associated more often with South Shore Massachusetts examples, this chair descended in a family from Lowell, Massachusetts until the late 1980s.
Credit: Jonathan and Karin Fielding Collection
Department: American Art
Find out more: View in the Art Museum catalog(Opens in new tab)

Label text

A "Carver chair" is a turned, spindle-back chair with decorative finials and a rush seat, named after John Carver (ca. 1576-1621), first governor of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, who is said to have brought such a chair to America aboard the Mayflower.

Carver Chair

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