Photographer's Chair
Chair, Photographer's. Circa 1880-1910. Wicker; wood; metal, brass [Vernacular style] Acc. No. 47480
Description: Saber style front and back legs. Elaborate openwork around knees and seat rail. Close woven seat rail in front with blue-green decorative cane design woven on front of rattan skirt. Closely woven rattan seat in wood seat frame, reinforced by wood braces below seat. Stiles have decorative overlay of wood balls and cane. There is a center splat of wood and tightly woven rattan with decorative open work in a trumpet configuration. Top rail is an elaborate curving openwork and close woven head rest with matching decorative colored blue-green cane design woven over the top of the rattan. Paper label glued under the seat reads: "No. 6037a [numerals written by hand with a dip pen) Heywood Brothers and Wakefield Company / Gardner, Mass. USA."
Discussion: Fancy chairs of this type were standard props in most photographer's studios in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This chair was donated in April 1930 by a world traveler and collector who wintered in Florida in the early 20th century.
Bibliography
- Corbin, Patricia. All About Wicker. New York Dutton, 1978. (See esp. pp. 30-34)
- Saunders, Richard. The Official Price Guide to Wicker. Orlando: House of Collectibles, 1985.
- (See esp. pp. 58-131)
- Thompson, Frances. The Complete Wicker Book: The History of Wicker Furniture and
- Accessories from Antique to Modern. Des Moines: Wallace Homestead Books, 1978.
