Pair of Irish George II Needlework Upholstered Mahogany Side Chairs, Circa 1740

Joseph K. Kindig, III, The Philadelphia Chair, 1685-1785, (York, PA: Historical Society of York County, 1978), no. 19.

Retaining their original wrought needlework upholstery and foundation upholstery, these side chairs are rare survivals. They represent the early Queen Anne style with their balloon compass shaped seats, cabriole legs terminating in trifid feat, and flat shaped stretchers. The chairs were initially thought to be of Philadelphia origin based on their overall design, oak secondary woods and compass seat construction but are now known to be of Irish manufacture. For a related Irish upholstered side chair, see one at Yale University that stems from a set of four illustrated in Desmond Fitzgerald, Irish Furniture: Woodworking and Carving in Ireland from the Earliest Times to the Act of Union (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007).

A similar example of these chairs is in the permanent collection of the Henry Ford Museum, Detroit, Michigan