Object Description
From: Laura Fecych Sprague
Sent: Tuesday, January 5, 2016 11:25 AM
To: Laura Latman
Cc: Joachim Homann
Subject: Hamill - Painted chair
Dear Laura,
Here is catalogue info for the chair offered as a gift by Bill Hamill. I hope to collect it next week. I've attached two images - overall and a detail.
Attributed to Walter Corey
American 1809 – 1889
SIDE CHAIR, 1842 – 1866
painted and stenciled wood, caned seat
Chair comprised of turned legs and stretchers with flat splat and crest rail. Crest rail decorated with unusual seaport scene in bronze stenciling; splat features related decoration of foliate motifs around a central oval. Black base coat highlighted with gold striping; turned balls on legs and stretchers highlighed with bronzing. Caned seat has been properly restored.
Notes: This chair, an excellent example of Walter Corey's production, would make an important contribution to Bowdoin's American chair collection. Corey was arguably Maine's most successful 19th-century chair manufacturer and we own no examples of his work. A signed Corey chair with the same stenciling on its crest rail at the state museum has a damaged seat and is not exhibitable. (We did not borrow it for Sit Down! Chair from Six Centuries in 2010.) Between the examples owned by the Maine State Museum and Maine Historical Society, the range of Corey's work is documented but this attributed example is among the most stylish chairs known and in very fine condition. The chair would also be a wonderful object for the Rufus Porter project.
