Charleston Loan Exhibition

59 Easy chair Charleston, SC, 1760/1775 Mahogany with ash (seat frame), tulip poplar (glue blocks, arm cones and back stiles) and cypress (arms and remainder of back frame) secondary woods H. 46 x W. 35 x D. 30 inches Historic Charleston Foundation, Charleston, SC, collection purchase in progress with contributions by Claire Allen, 2010.008.001 Conservation sponsored by Joe J. Ashley Easy chairs such as this example were among the most expensive forms of furniture because they were the product of both a cabinetmaker and upholsterer. The textile coverings and the labor-intensive upholstery treatments were more costly than the frames. This easy chair has well-rendered ball-and-claw feet, much like the examples noted in cabinetmaker Thomas Elfe’s account book, which typically sold for a considerable £30. 1 Although the form was common in the Carolina Lowcountry, Historic Charleston Foundation’s example is one of only ten documented, extant pre-Revolutionary Charleston-made easy chairs. While this chair is typical of other local examples with splayed, back-raking legs and block-rear feet, it is unique in that it is the only documented Charleston easy chair with upholsterer’s peaks at the front leg stiles.These extensions helped the upholsterer create a tight, square appearance over the front seat rail. The rear legs closely relate to examples made in New York and show the style transfer between American cities in the colonial period. Easy chairs were common in the homes of Charleston’s wealthier citizens, and members of the Hopton-Russell-Dehon family owned such seating furniture. Listed in Sarah Russell Dehon’s 1857 probate inventory of 51 Meeting Street is “1 Easy Chair,” which was kept in the third floor front bedchamber. 2 The form was out of fashion by 1857, and we can speculate that Sarah inherited this easy chair from her mother and father, Nathaniel Russell’s business partner and father- in-law William Hopton kept “1 Easy Chair, 4 stools and 4 chairs” in his bedchamber according to a 1793 inventory. 3 Easy chairs were often associated with resting, and thus, they were often found in bedchambers and back parlors BSC 1. Bradford L. Rauschenberg and John Bivins, Jr., The Furniture of Charleston, Vol. II (Winston-Salem, NC: The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, 2003), 403. 2. Probate inventory of Sarah Russell Dehon, May 30, 1857. Nathaniel Russell Research Files, Historic Charleston Foundation, Charleston, SC. 3. Probate Inventory of William Hopton, South Carolina Miscellaneous Records, Vol. 3E (1793–1795), 70–71.