1685-1710

Chair

Perhaps one of the earliest surviving Pennsylvania chairs, this example includes spiral "French" or "Dutch" turnings in its back, leg, and base stretcher components. Chairs of this type were popular in England during the reign of King Charles II (ruled 1660-85) and similar versions have also been documented in northern France and Holland. It may have been part of a larger suite of matching forms, and is thought to have originally belonged to Robert Pearson, an Englishman who immigrated in 1680 and settled near Nottingham, New Jersey, with his wife Catherine and son Robert.