Connecticut connections: a study of joined chairs, 1720-1810
Date
1984
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
This study examines the extent and nature of cultural interaction between the lower part of the Connecticut River Valley and eastern coastal Connecticut in the years between1720 and 1810. The style and construction of fifty joined chairs is used as an index of cultural interaction between the two areas which is articulated in part, in an artifactual vocabulary and which was based on the migration of craftsmen, economic and kinship ties among both chairmakers and chairowners. ☐ A stylistic and construction analysis of the chairs is complimented by genealogical research towards family reconstitution and probate inventory research to determine occupation through a careful reading of possessions, such as tools, that are indicative of one's trade. ☐ The study shows that between 1720 and 1760 the two areas shared common ideas of what constituted appropriate seating furniture but that between 1760 and 1810 that commonality disintegrated.This conclusion modifies the dominant belief that New England towns were first insular and closed and then open and culturally fluid.