Many of Gragg’s Elastic Chairs feature life-like painted peacock feathers that surpass other painted decoration from the period. Feathers frequently appeared on high-end British furniture imported into the United States and were widely copied by American furniture painters. The oval-back painted chair with five plumes seen here belonged to Elias Haskett Derby of Salem, Massachusetts, who was the country’s richest man in the 1790s. This sort of ornamental painting may have influenced Gragg and his painters, but most Elastic Chairs display even higher quality decoration.

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