In 1818, Lambert Hitchcock established a chair factory in Hitchcocks-ville (now Barkhamsted), Connecticut, which made parts that were shipped as far away as South Carolina. By 1825, however, he had switched the emphasis of the factory to producing finished chairs with distinctive bronze stenciling on dark backgrounds. The Hitchcock chair developed as an inexpensive response to Empire furniture, which typically featured gold elements on rich woods such as mahogany. Hitchcock’s marketing methods—labeling the backs of the chairs with his name and marking them “warranted”—were so successful that we still generically identify this type of chair as a “Hitchcock.”

This crown-top, turtleback chair is an early example of Hitchcock’s production, judging by the stamp “L. Hitchcock. Hitchcocks-ville. Conn. Warranted,” which he used between 1826 and 1829. At this time, chairs sold for $1.50, less than half the cost of a fancy chair of the same period. Hitchcock could price his chairs so reasonably because he applied methods of mass production, creating interchangeable chair parts in a limited range of styles. Workmen specialized in one area of production, and the stencil designs, such as the flowering on tinware, were done by women.

Stacy C. Hollander, "Side Chair," in American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 329.