Although it contains the customary elements of New England seating furniture in the late Baroque style, this chair breaks the mold in its rounded stiles (rear vertical posts); idiosyncratic, pointed splat design; and tiny, almost vestigial, pad feet. Its most commanding feature is the carved double shell that ornaments the crest rail, capping a distinctive (if somewhat naive) version of an international style as interpreted on the banks of Portsmouth's Piscataqua River.

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