A celebration of 
craft and industry, tradition and innovation

Slat-Back Great Chair

Boston or Salem, MA, 1650-1700

Maple, ash

Collection of Concord Museum

Bequest of Edna H. Howe (1953), F2139

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Only a few New England households had more than one or two chairs in them when this example was made in Boston. Odd as it seems now to consider, most people got by without them. This well-made example is one of several closely related chairs that survive with histories in eastern Massachusetts, including the famous Philip English chair esteemed by minister William Bentley of Salem for its association with the witch trials of 1692. If this chair was fitted with a cushion when new, as it almost certainly was, the cushion would have cost far more than the frame.

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Cradle

Barnstable or Yarmouth, MA, 1665-1685

Red oak, white pine

Collection of Historic New England

Gift of Dorothy Armour, Elizabeth T. Acampora, L. Hope Carter, Guido R. Perera, Henry C. Thacher, Louis B. Thacher, Jr., and Thomas C. Thacher, 1958.100

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Most cradles of this period were plain and functional; this astonishingly elaborate example is truly a masterpiece. While we may never know the name of the joiner who made it, he went to extraordinary lengths, using twenty-two joined panels, thirty-three turned spindles, nineteen buttons, and eight finials. The cradle belonged to John Thacher (1639-1713) a prominent citizen of Yarmouth, Massachusetts.

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