Illustration [153] shows a chair also belonging to Mr. Hosmer. It is made without stretchers, and the splat is pierced at the top.
A chair which retains the form of the Dutch chair, with “Eagle’s foot and shell on the Knee,” is shown in Illustration [154], but the splat is cut in an elaborate design, with the centre opening heart-shaped, which was the shape of the earliest piercing made in the plain splat. This chair and the one in Illustration [155] are in the Poore collection at Indian Hill, Newburyport. They show the development from the Dutch to the Chippendale style. The legs in Illustration [155] are carved upon the knee with an elaborate form of shell and a scroll. The splat is not pierced, but has a curious design of ropes with tassels carved at the top. These chairs were made about 1740-1750. The backs of the last four chairs are made with the characteristic Dutch top, curving down into the side-posts with rounded ends, with the effect of back and sides being in one piece.
Illus. 152 and Illus. 153.—Dutch Chairs, about 1740.
A style of chair common during the first half of the eighteenth century is shown in Illustration [156]; one chair having turned legs while the other ends in a Spanish foot. The tops are in the bow shape, and the splats are pierced, showing the influence of Chippendale fashions. The splat is alike in both, but the country cabinet-maker who probably made these chairs may have thought the splat would look as well one way as the other, and so put one in upside down. They are in the Deerfield Museum, and were made about 1750.
Illus. 154 and Illus 155.—Dutch Chairs, 1740-1750.
A roundabout chair in the Dutch style is shown in Illustration [157]. The bandy legs end in a foot with a slight carving in grooves, and the seat is rounding upon the corners like that in the ordinary Dutch chair. This very graceful chair is owned by Francis H. Bigelow, Esq., of Cambridge.
Illus. 156.—Dutch Chairs, 1750-1760.