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Side Chair

Decorative Arts and Design

On View: Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor
These two side chairs illustrate American responses to Old World traditions. The typical eighteenth-century Spanish colonial side chair does not differ much from its counterpart in British America. Both designs were based on English models that were adapted to suit local tastes. The cabriole leg design, a staple in colonial Rococo furniture, as well as in British and British American Queen Anne and Chippendale designs, was adopted in Spain and its overseas provinces, possibly as a result of the empire's intense but intermittent trade with England.


Estas dos sillas ilustran la respuesta americana a las tradiciones del Viejo Mundo. La típica silla lateral colonial española del siglo XVIII no se diferencia en mucho de su contraparte en la América británica. Ambos diseños se basaban en modelos ingleses adaptados al gusto local. El diseño de pata cabriolé— básico en la mueblería colonial rococó, así como los estilos Reina Ana y Chippendale británicos y británicoamericanos— se adoptó también en España y sus provincias de ultramar, posiblemente como resultado del comercio intermitente pero intenso del imperio con Inglaterra.

MEDIUM Cherry and tulip poplar with modern upholstery
DATES ca. 1730
DIMENSIONS 42.4 x 21 x 19.25 in. (107.7 x 53.3 x 48.9 cm)  (show scale)
ACCESSION NUMBER 1997.150.2a-b
CREDIT LINE Matthew Scott Sloan Collection, Gift of Lidie Lane Sloan McBurney
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Queen Anne style side chair (a) and slip seat (b). Central crown scrolled crest over scallop shell ornament flanked by S-scrolled volutes, carved fiddle-back splat terminating in shoe banded by carving in egg-and-dart design. Compass seat, block-front construction with through mortise and tenon on side rail visible from back. Center of apron recessed with applied carved shell motif. Cabriole legs with carved volutes forming the leg brackets and carved acanthus leaves at knees terminating in carved ball-and-claw feet. Modern finish. Front right leg has been broken and repaired with block and screw. CONDITION - Modern finish. Front right leg has been broken and repaired with block and screw.
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor
CAPTION Side Chair, ca. 1730. Cherry and tulip poplar with modern upholstery, 42.4 x 21 x 19.25 in. (107.7 x 53.3 x 48.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Matthew Scott Sloan Collection, Gift of Lidie Lane Sloan McBurney, 1997.150.2a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1997.150.2a-b_PS6.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 1997.150.2a-b_PS6.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2013
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RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
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