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Article: The incredible elastic chairs of Samuel Gragg.
- Article from:
- The Magazine Antiques
- Article date:
- May 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In 1801 at the age of twenty-nine, Samuel Gragg arrived in Boston and began earning his living as a maker of "common" chairs. His name occasionally appeared in Boston tax records, and he frequently branded "S. GRAGG BOSTON" boldly on the bottoms of his conventional, bamboo style windsor chairs. He would have remained a known but obscure craftsman, were it not for a professional epiphany that can only be surmised by furniture scholars. This inspiration led him to be awarded, on August 31, 1808, a United States patent for what he officially referred to in the document as a bentwood "Elastic Chair" (see Pls. II, VII).
Information about Gragg's background is sketchy, ...