William MacBride Windsor Armchair, ca. 1790
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APPRAISER:
Kathy, you have at least one very distinguished ancestor, and he apparently owned this chair.
GUEST:
That is General William Floyd, who was actually my husband's grandfather seven generations back.
APPRAISER:
And he was a signer, right, of the Declaration of Independence.
GUEST:
Yes, he was.
APPRAISER:
You said he lived in Long Island, right?
GUEST:
He lived in Long Island for years. And then they built a summer... they called it a manor in Westernville, New York, which is just outside of Rome.
APPRAISER:
This would have been called a garden chair or a garden Windsor in 18th-century America.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
It was made in New York, probably in the 1790s. And let me just tell you quickly how this kind of chair evolved. In England, it was very fashionable to have Windsor seating furniture-- that is, seating furniture with a wooden seat and with spindles above and turned legs below-- in your garden. And by the 1790s, when this chair was made in New York City, they were making a lot of Windsors with this continuous bow back. You probably didn't think this was something that should be outside, right?
GUEST:
No, never would've I thought that.
APPRAISER:
In fact, in New York, Windsor chair makers advertised that they had garden Windsor furniture for sale. I'll tell you who made this chair, too: a man named William MacBride. Typical of William MacBride's work is this turning shape right here. See this nice, bulbous shape? A wonderful peak on the seat, and his legs... It's almost like a Windsor on steroids, in a way. It really is pumped up. This chair goes to the gym. And it has this swollen, wonderful vase and a really narrow ring turning here and a nice taper to the foot. It's a continuous arm with a brace back, made by William MacBride. It's not signed. It's great that this has the original feet because a lot of them are rotted off because they sat outdoors, they deteriorated. Now, I'm going to write down the price that I think this is worth and see your reaction. Now I've got your hopes up, right? Let me just see. This is what we would ask... what I would put on the chair in my shop.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
Is that a comma?
APPRAISER:
That's a comma.
GUEST:
Oh! That's very nice.
APPRAISER:
You want to tell everybody what I just wrote down?
GUEST:
Well, he wrote down $10,000.
APPRAISER:
$10,000, okay. Are you surprised?
GUEST:
I am, and very pleased.
APPRAISER:
Well, you're not going to put it out in your garden, though. You only did that in the 18th century.
GUEST:
No, and this is staying in the family. I'm so pleased. That's good news!
Appraisal Details
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