NORWICH OR HARTFORD AREA, CONNECTICUT, 1740-1760

As argued by Nancy Goyne Evans, the design of these chairs is deceptively simple with curvilinear passages that echo and repeat throughout the entire form. The distinctive spurs on the splats, along with the chamfered rear legs and three-stretcher bases, link these chairs to several others traditionally ascribed to Norwich, Connecticut. More recent research suggests that another possibility is the Hartford area, where an armchair of this pattern was purportedly owned by Governor John Pitkin (1694-1769) and the similar side chair in the following lot was owned by the Lyman family. For a similar example at Winterthur and a discussion of related examples, see Nancy Goyne Evans, catalogue entry, New England Furniture at Winterthur: The Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods (Winterthur, 1997), pp. 39-40, no. 21.