Slat-Back Great Chair
Boston or Salem, MA, 1650-1700
Maple, ash
Collection of Concord Museum
Bequest of Edna H. Howe (1953), F2139
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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