Chair, Side

Description

This circa 1840s Canterbury side chair with tilter buttons retains its original finish as well as decoration and text added at a later date (probably in the 1870s or 1880s) by the style of lettering. The chair was likely decorated – black paint applied to the finials, around the back-posts where the back-slats are mortised into the posts, and around the front and back posts where the stretchers connect, and the text, “God Bless Mother,” painted on the three back-slats – as a remembrance of Mother Ann Lee, the Shakers’ founder. The 100th anniversary of the Shakers coming to the American Colonies in 1774 and the 100th anniversary of the death of Mother Ann in 1784 were both events worthy of memorializing. A chair in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art with a carved inscription, “Mother Ann Lee 1774” was certainly done in a similar manner to recognize the Shakers arrival from England in 1774.

Notes

The inscription "God Bless Mother" is thought to refer to Mother Ann Lee, the founder of Shakerism in the United States. A chair in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art bears a carved inscription, "Mother Ann Lee 1774," probably made in commemoration of the centennial of the Shakers' first landing in the United States; that chair can be seen here: https://www.philamuseum.org/collection/object/230205.