Minneapolis Institute of Art

Bannister-back side chair

United States (Massachusetts)

Date

c. 1720

Medium

Maple and oak with rush seat

Department

Arts of the Americas

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

The banisters that make up the back of this chair were split in half after they had been turned on a lathe. The bannisters' flat side faces the front, where they would meet the sitter's back, and rounded side faces the rear. The manufacturing method was more labor-intensive than simple ladder-back chairs with horizontal back splats, yet less costly than their leather-upholstered or caned contemporaries. This chair descended in the family of the original owners, and was brought to St. Cloud, Minnesota by the Staples family in the 1850s. United States, Americas

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