"Elastic" Side Chair

One of the icons of American furniture, the "Elastic Chair" was patented by Samuel Gragg, a Boston-based designer, engineer and chairmaker, on August 31, 1808. In his design for this chair, Gragg was inspired both by the elegant curving lines of classical furniture, particularly the Greek klismos chair, and by the colorful painted decoration of so-called fancy furniture, which was popular in the United States in the first decades of the 19th century.

The back and seat of the chair are made of continuous slats of wood bent into curves with the aid of steam and clamps. The peacock feather decoration painted on the central splat, which fans out on to the chair's crest rail, and the floral decoration on the legs, which terminate in goat-hoof feet, are further evidence of Neoclassicism in Samuel Gragg's innovated design.