Today I will examine the structure of the carved back of the Chippendale style ribbon back armchair. As mentioned earlier, its design closely follows that of a ribbon back armchair illustrated in Thomas Chippendale’s The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director, plate # 15.
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| Plate 15, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, third edition. |
But does the construction technique of the blog chair's back follow that put forth in the Director?
There is no written mention of construction techniques in Chippendales’ Director. John T. Kirk, a Guggenheim fellow, curator, professor emeritus at Boston College and author on American furniture touches on the construction of the splat of an authentic 18th century Philadelphia Chippendale style chair in his American Furniture; Understanding Styles, Construction and Quality. Here he is speaking of one of the famous Cadwalader chairs. “The splat area is made of three sections: a horizontal-grain piece connects the stiles; vertical parts connect it to the top rail and the shoe.”(12)
To clarify, look at the illustration below.
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| Plate 15, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, third edition. |
The horizontal piece (1) is in the center of the back; it includes the bow and the ribbon tails and connects to the side pieces called stiles. The vertical parts are (2) above and (3) below the ribbon. Kirk mentions three pieces. I’m going to assume that each of the pieces was made of solid wood because in all my research of 18th century furniture solid wood was always the medium used. Also, Kirk would have mentioned if it was not.
Here is a photo of the ribbon back blog chair. In the frontal view, the center splat is all one piece.
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| Photo SHS |
Further, the top rail is an extension of the splat. It is joined to the stiles at about 2” down from the top of the ears. Look closely, the joint is about 1/4" below the carving. Also there is an ever so slight color change between the two pieces.
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| Photo SHS |
This is a bird’s eye view of the blog chair.
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| Photo SHS |
You are looking directly at the splat (left) and top rail (right). For perspective note the chair seat in the background. A joint of the splat to the rail would be a seen as a vertical line towards the right of this image. There is no joint. Instead, two horizontal lines that are lighter than the rest of the wood finish grab your attention. This is paint that was meant to cover the fine lines of the three plied layers of the back. So the back splat IS made of three pieces of wood in an entirely different configuration than the 18th century original.
Now look more closely at the detail photo below.
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| Photo SHS |
Notice the fine line between the second and third layer of wood?
Plywood is hardly something that jumps to mind when thinking of good quality furniture, but in 1856 John Henry Belter obtained 4 patents for the process of laminating layers of rosewood together to construct the deeply carved and curved backs of the Rococo Revival seating furniture for which he is famous. Many of Belter’s pieces are extant and now reside in museums.
The survival of the blog chair is also testament to the success of the process. This Victorian reproduction was probably made around the time of America’s centennial, when Colonial Revival was all the rage. It is still in good shape.
And to wrap things up tonight, a word (or two) taken from an email from Charles F. Hummel.
“The use of three-plied wood would signify to me that the chair is definitely rococo revival. John Henry Belter, although not the first cabinetmaker to do so, is generally credited with making the use of plied wood common as a means of cutting intricate designs in seating furniture.”
Theresa
Yummy Furniture and Design
theresamhs@sbcglobal.net
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12. John T. Kirk, American Furniture Understanding Styles, Construction and Quality, New York, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 116.
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