The "Transitional" Chair

As we discussed in our last blog The Wagan Standard, the transition from "community" manufacturing of chairs to the "production" manufacturing of chairs by the Shakers did not happen overnight, and sometimes you find a chair from Mt. Lebanon that sits in between these two "periods." A chair produced during this transition is referred to as a "transitional" chair. Pictured is a fine example.

From 1770-1780 Brother Wagan experimented with different elements of mass production and design. As noted in the outstanding book The Shaker Chair by Charles R. Muller and Timothy Rieman (1984), during this period there were three main varieties of chairs that can be found.

First are chairs with unchamfered slats, acorn finials, back bent posts, side scroll arms, simple taper of front posts from seat to arm and one of two styles of rocker blades (a shorter one and a longer one which survived after 1880 on the Wagan Standard). The pictured chair seems to be one of this variety with the rocker style that survived on the Wagan Standard.

Second are chairs that have the same acorn finials, but have slats with rounded edges and crescent shaped arms with mushroom cap tenons (more similar to the style that on the Wagan Standard), and front posts that taper from seat to arm.

The third style has the same acorn finials and form of slats, but the front posts exhibit the vase turnings between seat and arms that we find on the Wagan Standard. Additionally, we find several styles of mushroom caps on these chairs. There is an example of this type of transitional chair with larger than usual mushroom caps in our Collection.

All of these variations are part of the fun of finding and identifying Shaker chairs. Browse our Collection and see if you can identify any more interesting variations!