Side Chair

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

This chair is from a set made to commemorate either the marriage of Judge Robert Livingston and his wife Margaret, in 1742, or that of their son Robert and his wife Mary, in 1770. The “RML” cipher-pierced back splat is unique in American chair design of this period. The contrast of the high-style Chippendale design with the crude craftsmanship of the carvings suggests that the chair was worked on by several hands or that it was made by a country craftsman unfamiliar with practices of the more sophisticated port cities. The powerful Livingston family controlled a large estate near Albany as well as land in New York City.

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