18th Century Antique Queen Anne Ladderback Chair in Black With Ram's Head Arms

With our absolute highest compliments Bay Colony Antiques takes the utmost pleasure in offering this truly remarkable antique Queen Anne period armchair. During the 18th century the prevalent Queen Anne style swept through colonial America replacing the previous William & Mary designs which often favored heavier and darker woods that were similar to the Elizabethan and Tudor styles of 16th century Europe. The Queen Anne period began during the second quarter of the 18th century and continued right on through the English Georgian and American Federal periods. The earliest examples of the movement showed a departure from the heavy and dark forms of William & Mary period craftsman in favor of lighter woods and graceful lines throughout the varying furniture designs. The first two decades of the Queen Anne movement, during the 1730's & 1740's, saw furniture constructed with transitional design elements that drew influence from both the William & Mary early period and the emerging Queen Anne style. The later years of the Queen Anne period, during the 1780's and 1790's, saw the emergence of designs associated with English cabinetmakers such as Thomas Chippendale and others with a confluence of the two design periods creating another transitional period in both English and American design. Understanding how the earlier and later periods surrounding the Queen Anne movement influenced the furniture makers of the 18th century is essential in learning how to identify and pinpoint the age of any given antique within reason. We feel the need to denote the evolution of the Queen Anne period and the furniture constructed throughout those decades so that the early and rare nature of our present offering can be fully appreciated.

This Queen Anne period arm chair is truly a remarkable offering as many of these chairs have sadly been lost to time. The chair employees a ladderback design with four curved and shaped back rails being sequentially placed vertically and tenoned into the uprights of the chair frame. An unusual turned embellishment is adorned on each upright side having been situated underneath the lemon top formed finials. The chair features ram's head rolled arms that are well formed and joined just above subtly turned Grecian baluster urns that are featured on the front corners of the chair frame just above the exceptional splint woven seat. The frame features sausage turnings throughout the uprights as well as on the double stretcher frontside which is a hallmark of chairs transitioning out of the William & Mary style and into the Queen Anne fashion. In all likelihood this chair is a product of a New England chairmaker working in the middle of the 18th century sometime around the later second quarter or earliest part of the third quarter circa 1750 - 1765. The chair is finished in a black paint surface which by all indications is an antique surface that is at least as old as the 19th century if not older. The frame of the chair is in excellent condition with it being a sturdy and secure specimen that has only had a minimal amount of maintenance along the bottom two inches of the chair legs. This is common among early American chairs and to be expected given the long lives which they endure. The back legs were given a gold painted accent along the very bottom at some point in the past century. The chair is further strengthened by double stretcher sides and a single rear stretcher along the base. The chair measures 24" wide arm to arm x 18 3/4" deep x 44 3/4" tall with a 17 1/2" seat height.