Hepplewhite Side Chair

This chair was reproduced from a chair in a private collection in Tryon, NC. The chair has been illustrated in American Furniture from the Israel Sack Collection, Volume 3, page 827, Wallace Nutting's Furniture Treasury, plate 2330 (once owned by the author), The Magazine Antiques, June 1946, page 360;January 1953, page 46; The June 1972, inside front cover; and May 1992, page 703. A related chair is illustrated in American Furniture: The Federal Period by Charles F. Montgomery, plate 47. Other related examples appear in The Magazine Antiques, May 1989, page 1084, and February 1994, inside front cover. The primary wood for this chair (swietenia mahogani) was salvaged from dead trees on Key Largo, Florida about forty years before I purchased it 30 years ago. The wood closely resembles San Domingo in both color and density. The secondary wood is poplar (the original had chestnut front and side seat rails and pine corner glue blocks (horizontal grain on the back rails and vertical grain on the front rails). The finish is shellac and wax with no oxidizers or stains. Photo by The Smithwrights