Research Catalog

Title

American Windsor chairs / Nancy Goyne Evans.

Author

Evans, Nancy Goyne.

Publication

New York : Hudson Hills Press in association with the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, [1996], ©1996.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

• Gralla, Howard I.
• Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum.

Description

744 pages : illustrations (some color); 32 cm

Summary

• American Windsor chairs are among the most widely collected objects in the decorative-arts field, prized by private collectors, museums, and historic sites. First introduced from England in the 1730s, Windsors in America were characterized by much greater innovation and adaptation, reaching their high point during the 1790s, when sales surpassed those of all other chairs combined. Yet the interest continues two centuries later as the antique Windsor market flourishes and many enthusiastic artisans continue the tradition by handcrafting their own products. Nancy Goyne Evans, formerly on the staff at the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, has written the definitive book on American Windsor chairs. Beginning with the form's Classical and European background, and following the evolution of the American industry from a handcraft situation to one of mass production around 1850, she goes on to a comprehensive analysis of Windsor chair design, decoration, and production by region, covering not only the mid-Atlantic states (Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York) and New England but also the South, the Midwest, and Canada. All major chair patterns are discussed and illustrated, including hundreds of previously unpublished examples from private and public collections. Also reproduced are many works of art and contemporaneous documents in which Windsor chairs are depicted.
• Maps of each region; a glossary, bibliography, and index; and a remarkable alphabetical checklist giving the names, dates, and locations of about 2,400 chairmakers help to make American Windsor Chairs the indispensable reference for collectors, scholars, and lovers of American decorative arts. It is published in association with the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, the premier institution devoted to American decorative arts.

Subjects

• Windsor chairs > United States
• United States

Note

• Rare Book copy: In original dust jacket.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 725-733) and index.

Contents

• Pt. 1. Background history and overview. Classical and European background. Development of stick construction and turnery -- The English Windsor, 1720 to the 1750s -- The English Windsor, 1750s to 1800 -- The English Windsor, 1800 to 1850 -- Continental forms -- Profile of the American Windsor Furniture Industry. Transmission of the Windsor to America -- Early development and diffusion -- Early owners -- Leading designers -- Expansion of production and marketing -- Industrialization and mass production -- Pt. 2. Regional studies: products and producers. Chair production in the Middle Atlantic Region. Pennsylvania. Philadelphia from the 1740s to 1800 -- Pennsylvania from the mid Eighteenth Century to 1800.
• Cont.): Philadelphia and Pennsylvania from 1800 to the 1870s -- Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey -- New York. New York City from the 1740s to 1800 -- New York state before 1800 -- New York City from 1800 to 1850 -- New Nork state, 1800 to the 1850s -- Chair production in New England. New England, 1750 to 1800. 1750 to 1775 -- 1776 to 1800 -- New England, the Nineteenth Century before 1850. Rhode Island -- Connecticut -- Massachusetts -- Northern New England -- Chair production in other regions. The South, Midwest, and British Canada. The South -- The Midwest -- American influence on the Windsor furniture of upper and lower Canada -- American Windsor craftsmen, 1745-1850.

ISBN

• 1555951120
• 9781555951122

LCCN

95043862

OCLC

• ocm33360639
• 33360639
• SCSB-3342260

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries