It's an "ADD TO CART" kind of day! Free Shipping on all orders in the U.S. Klismos Chair from Global Views is hand made from natural light wood. Lush gray cowhide leather offers decadent seating for dining room.��Pair of Swedish Klismos Chairs Pair of barrel back armchairs in the neoclassical style, Sweden circa 1900. The front and side rails have inset gilded laurel leaf molding. A combination of gilt and brass rosettes mark the turnings of the arms and the corner blocks . Lotus carving at the top of each round front leg. These comfortable chairs make an elegant statement. Height: 31" (seat height, 18") Width: 24" Depth: 22" Side ChairDesigned by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, American (born England), 1764 - 1820. Decorated by George Bridport, American (born England), 1783 - 1819.Geography: Made in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, North and Central America Date:1808Medium: Gessoed, painted and gilded tulip poplar and oak, silk upholsteryDimensions: 34 1/4 x 20 x 20 inches (87 x 50.8 x 50.8 cm)Curatorial Department: American Art* Gallery 103, American Art, first floor (Sherrerd Gallery)Accession Number: 1986-126-6Credit Line
: Purchased with the gift (by exchange) of Mrs. Alex Simpson, Jr., and A. Carson Simpson, and with funds contributed by Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Raley and various donors, 1986 There are currently no user tags associated with this object. [Add Your Own Tags] Label:In 1808, British-born architect B. Henry Latrobe completed the construction phase of the Philadelphia house he designed for merchant William Waln and his wife Mary Wilcocks Waln. The final element of this project was the interior furnishing, which Latrobe considered integral to the architectural scheme. For the drawing room, he ordered decorative painter George Bridport to paint scenes from "Flaxman's Iliad or Odyssey in flat Etruscan color, giving only outline on a rich ground." This chair is part of the elegantly painted furniture Latrobe designed for the Walns' drawing room. Decorated in rich red, yellow, and gilt on a black ground and incorporating classical motifs and symbols, the set of drawing room furniture consisted of a pier table, Grecian sofas, a pair of card tables, window benches, and chairs.
Its legs that curved inwards make the chair the earliest American example of a Klismos chair, a forerunner of the classical style that enjoyed widespread popularity in the late 1810s and 1820s. In addition to this chair from the Waln set, the Museum's collection includes six more chairs, a Grecian sofa, a card table, and a pier table with a mirrored back. Related ObjectsThis Artist/MakerClassificationCuratorial Department * Works in the collection are moved off view for many different reasons. Although gallery locations on the website are updated regularly, there is no guarantee that this object will be on display on the day of your visit.An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below. The intellectual property depicted in this model, including the brand "restoration hardware", is not affiliated with or endorsed by the original rights holders.
Editorial uses of this product are allowed, but other uses (such as within computer games) may require legal clearances from third party intellectual property owners. Don't see the file format you need? Free File Format ConversionChat with us now. Live Chat Now 24/7I once wrote about Windsor Chairs, and today I thought I would talk about one of my other favorite chairs: the Klismos Chair. I am a bit baised here since I have 6 Klismos chairs around my dining table... But, like the Windsor chair, the Klismos design has lasting power. After all, it's origins date to 400 B.C. There are no known original Klismos chairs in existence, but the ancient chair design was ressurected in the 1700s by the French, during the Neoclassical period. It endured through the 1800s, became a popular chair in England, and then traveled to America by way of the famous furniture maker, Duncan Phyfe. Some Klismos chairs are painted, laquered, or golf leafed... others have woven seats, or decorative upholstery.
Today, there seems to be a Klismos chair for everyone. And, these are my Klismos dining chairs... They are from the 1950s. We reupholstered them (in Celerie Kemble's "betwixt") and gave them a coat of paint. Although there are many varieties of the Klismos chair, it always displays two key elements: the striking profile and light weight design. To me it seems like a chair to respect. After all, the design has been admired by humanity for 2,500 years. For more on the Greek History of the Klismos Chair, click HERE or HERE, or HERE.Of all the furniture of the 18th and 19th centuries, the work of Boston chair maker Samuel Gragg (1772-1855) is some of the most shocking to modern eyes. His elastic, steam-bent chairs are based on the ancient Greek “klismos” chair,” yet they have unexpected curves and a lightness that is contemporary. There aren’t many Gragg chairs extant, perhaps a few dozen, so perhaps the only way most of us will ever get to sit in one is if we make it ourselves, which is exactly what Don Williams did during 2011.
Williams, senior furniture conservator at The Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute (www.si.edu/mci), was able to examine, photograph and measure the only three known examples of Gragg’s “fully elastic” arm chair. He built three versions of these Gragg chairs using different methods and materials, including a traditional one using steam-bent oak, a version made using bent plywood lamination and a third using bamboo. Williams has been documenting the construction processes for an article for an upcoming issue of American Period Furniture, the annual publication of the Society of American Period Furniture Makers (SAPFM). If you are even remotely interested in traditional American furniture, I encourage you to become a member of this organization (I am). The annual American Period Furniture alone is worth the price of membership, but you also get access to the vast knowledge and resources of its members through the organization’s forum and the ability to attend its events.
Read more about being a member here. As he built his chairs, Williams sent me updates on the process because he knew I’d be interested in some of the building techniques that were similar to Windsor chair-making. I also got to read a draft of Williams’s manuscript for American Period Furniture. The chairs are an interesting combination of simple joinery and very tricky processes – the main leg/stile of the chair has two bends on a 6” radius that are a little more than a foot apart. Plus there are half-blind dovetails to attach the seat slats and delicate mortise-and-tenons for the back splats. Yet in most places Gragg used metal pins or screws to reinforce joints. And somehow all 25 pieces of the chair – only six are straight – have to come together where none is square and most were tapered and swelled along two axes. “If crisp rectilinear joinery is your furniture-making goal, building a Gragg chair just might not be your cup of tea,” Williams writes in his account of the construction.
“There is almost no clean joinery layout, and much of the fitting and overall composition is improvisation. Rather than seeking precision or symmetry, you must strive for compositional and structural balance.” The end result of Williams’s efforts is beautiful. But I knew it would be. What I wanted to know is this: How does the chair sit? “As comfortable as it gets,” Williams writes of the nine-pound chair. “Miraculously, it is comfortable for everyone who sits in it, regardless of body configuration. I love it (at) 6’0″ 225 pounds. My intern Daniela, 5’3″ and eight months pregnant loves it. My woodworking pal Tom (at) 6’7″ loves it. Sorta like a universal version of my Eames chair, which is so comfortable for me that I fall asleep easily in it but makes smaller people ache.” Williams’s efforts are the best kind of historical research in my opinion. There is only so much that we can learn by examining old books, old tools and old furniture. At some point the only way to deepen our understanding of historical forms is to rebuild them.