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Samuel Gragg

Elastic Armchair, 1808 (patented)

Now On View

Description

Maker

  • Samuel Gragg, 1772-ca. 1855, American

Culture

American

Title

Elastic Armchair

Year

1808 (patented)

Medium

White oak, hickory, soft maple, beech

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • silver maple,
  • beech,
  • hickory,
  • paint,
  • white oak

Dimensions

85.1 x 51.4 x 63.5 cm (33 1/2 x 20 1/4 x 25 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Chairmaker's brand on underside of rear seat rail

Place

Boston; Massachusetts

Type

  • Decorative Arts,
  • Furniture

Credit

Gift of the Wunsch Americana Foundation, Inc.

Object Number

85.024

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Making It In America

October 11, 2013 - February 9, 2014

Elizabeth A. Williams, curator of decorative arts: Based on the ancient Greek klismos form, this chair incorporates bentwood lamination, a technique using steam to shape wood into graceful curves. Patented in 1808, Gragg’s design and construction process benefitted from his experience using this technique to make Windsor chairs, an example of which is on the right. Inspired by the proportions and lightweight construction of the Windsor chair, Gragg fused the classical past with the industrialized future. The chair is adorned with motifs that date to antiquity, such as the painted peacock feathers along the chair back, the acanthus leaves on the seat rail, and the carved hoof feet.

Alicia Valencia, RISD (furniture design) / Brown BA student, 2015: The Elastic chair has an anachronistic energy, with the design and construction appearing far more advanced than the skills and mindset typical of its era. The process by which the chair was made can be read in its form, which makes it a wonderful teaching example. Construction included steaming straight-grained wood, bending the malleable wood in a jig to dry, and merging the pieces together with straight or dovetail joints that vary from each other in size and angle due to the gentle compound curvature of the back. My favorite aspect is the delicate and surprising hoof-like feet. This chair communicates substantial information about its making and offers a great model for designing furniture today.

18th and 19th-Century American Galleries

Charles Pendleton House

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Elastic Armchair with the accession number of 85.024. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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