A chair which retained some characteristics of the cane chair was the banister-back chair, which appears in inventories of the first half of the eighteenth century.
Two banister-back chairs owned by the writer are shown in Illustration [139] and Illustration 140. It will be seen that the tops and one carved underbrace are similar to those upon cane chairs, while the legs of one chair end in a clumsy Spanish foot. The banisters which form the back are turned on one side and flat on the other.
| Illus. 137.—Cane Chair, 1690-1700. | Illus. 138.—Queen Anne Chair, 1710-1720. |
These chairs have the flat side in front, but either side was used in banister chairs, plainer types of which are found, sometimes with the slats not turned, but straight and flat. The chair in Illustration [140] was used for the deacon’s chair in the old meeting-house in Westborough, Massachusetts, built in 1724, and it stood in “the deacon’s pue,” in front of the pulpit, for the deacon to sit upon, as was the custom.
Illus. 139 and Illus. 140.—Banister-back Chairs, 1710-1720.
Illus. 141.—Banister-back
Chair, 1710-1740.