| Object ID |
A36 |
| Object Name |
Chair, Desk |
| Dimensions |
H-43 W-28 D-31 inches |
| Early Date |
1775 |
| Late Date |
1825 |
| Description |
According to tradition, this Windsor writing chair was owned by Ira Allen (1751-1814), brother of Ethan Allen, the famous leader of the Freen Mountain Boys. First trained as a surveyor, Ira Allen explored and mapped out vast areas of the New Hampshire grants and became owner of large expanses of the new territory. He also served as a lieutenant in Seth Warner's regiment of the Continental Army, the Green Mountain Boys, represented his town of Colchester in all the conventions of the New Hampshire grants in 1776 and 1777, and played a principal role in drafting the Constitution of the Republic of Vermont. Ira Allen also designed the Vermont State seal and served as the Republic's Treasurer, Surveyor-General, and member of the Governor's Council in the late 1770s. In 1798, he published "The Natural and Political History of the State of Vermont, One of the United States of America," which is still one of the most valuable early histories of the state.
Windsor chairs, inexpensive and made of common and mixed woods, were in wide use during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence sitting in a Windsor chair, Benjamin Franklin sat in a Windsor chair at Independence Hall, and George Washington seated his parlor guests at Mount Vernon in Windsor chairs. Because the were made from a variety of woods, the chairs were usually painted first with an undercoat of pink, red, or light-colored wash and then given a final coat of either dark green, black, red, brown, or yellow. Maple or hickory was commonly used for the spindles, pine or tulip for the seat, and either oak or ash for the bow of the back. The chair shown here, made of maple, ash, and pine, was originally painted red with a light undercoat of pink.
The bamboo turnings on this chair are characteristic of thos made in New London County, Connecticut around 1800. It is possible that a Connecticut-trained craftsman made this chair either in Connecticut or in Vermont where Ira Allen primarily lived from 1773 until 1803. |
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