Sausage Chairn.d.42 × 18 × 15"Paint on wood with rush seatGift of Gertrude Schweitzer1986.4.20Ladder-back side chair with rush seat, painted black with gold trim. Back posts are turned - with 3 alternating elongated sausages and flattened balls - topped with a turnip and button finial. It is the disks that have remnants of gold metallic paint. There are four triangular-shaped back splats of graduated size, the largest on top. They are straight across the bottom and taper up toward the center on top. They appear to be hand hewn and vary in size. The back legs are round and straight and appear to be from the same piece as the posts. The front legs are wider apart than the rear and are turned - with an alternating elongated sausage (2) and flattened ball (2) design - and a flat bell shaped foot. Because the seat is wider across the front (18") than the rear (15") the front legs are wider apart than the rear. There are double straight and round stretchers on the L and R side, and a single in the rear. The front stretchers of the DL and R side, and a single in the rear. The front stretchers are also double but are turned and form 7 sausage-like links: on the top row the decorative black and gold paint alternates; the lower row has 2 black links at either end and the center 3 are gold-black-gold. The sausage pieces at each end of the stretcher taper slightly to mortise into the front legs. There are nails (wood?) for additional support to secure the back posts and stretchers.152472368Artist unidentifiedFurniture/Furnishingshttp://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster19786United StatesThree Dimensional Works
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgThe slat-back or ladder-back chair has been a popular American furniture form from the 17th century to the present and is identified by the horizontal slats across the back. It appears with a variety of decorative features, including sausage turnings. The seats are usually of rush. These chairs were utilitarian and were basically unaffected by major stylistic trends. Their individuality may have been as much an affectation of their maker as of their region. They are difficult to date and identify by locale because they retained the basic form over time and place. This particular chair may have been decorated with gold paint to give it a "fancier" look.FURNITUREhttp://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster19786http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster19786http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster1978600 1986 4 2
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgThe slat-back or ladder-back chair has been a popular American furniture form from the 17th century to the present and is identified by the horizontal slats across the back. It appears with a variety of decorative features, including sausage turnings. The seats are usually of rush. These chairs were utilitarian and were basically unaffected by major stylistic trends. Their individuality may have been as much an affectation of their maker as of their region. They are difficult to date and identify by locale because they retained the basic form over time and place. This particular chair may have been decorated with gold paint to give it a "fancier" look.FURNITURE