At auction time, there was some discussion that the chair may be English rather than American. Anyway, there are a couple of other tidbits that may be of interest. After this sale, newspapers wondered if the collecting public had gone bonkers.I'm second guessing my own sanity for trying to replicate it. Anyway, in 1929 Reifsynder's collection went to auction and this piece was purchased by the Philadelphia Museum of Arts (PMA) for a then-astounding $33,000. (If anyone knows the chronology between these two points, please let me know.having trouble finding it). The chair then passed down through the family of Randolf's 2nd wife and ultimately into the collection of Howard Reifsynder. There's discrepancy in the literature on exactly who did the carving, but in Beckerdite's 2007 edition of American Furniture, Andrew Brunk attributes the carving to John Pollard, and I tend to agree with his conclusion. It's claimed to have been built in the shop of Benjamin Randolf in Philadelphia circa 1770. But after a day at the museum pawing over some of the most incredible early American carving, I am convicted to build one of my own. Having never been big on upholstered furniture (except for the comfy one in front of the TV), I was reluctant at first to even consider building it. Might as well use the time between seasons to get cracking on the major project for 2011. Perhaps it explains the highest concentration of taverns per capita in the US. Here in the northwoods of Wisconsin XC ski trails are starting to get soft, the birkebeiner has concluded, roads are still too icy to bike, and our dictator (err governor) has managed to divide a pretty easy going population.
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