Side chair

The design of this chair is derived from the Grecian Klismos form. Samuel Gragg, a Boston chairmaker, was in the forefront of bentwood technology in the early nineteenth century and, on August 31, 1808, received a patent for an "elastic chair." His use of bentwood to achieve Grecian-style fancy furniture is unique. Very few of his fragile chairs survive. This chair is similar in design to a signed set of Gragg chairs at the Art Institute of Chicago. It differs from another Gragg chair in this collection (1980.496) in that its front legs are separate from the pieces of bentwood that form the back and seat frames. This front legs on this chair terminate in goat's hoof feet.