Side Chair, ca. 1770
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Attributed to Benjamin Randolph
Mahogany with white cedar
Lent by the Chipstone Foundation  1999.17

Ridiculous, twisted merchandise
  — Charles-Nicolas Cochin, 1754

English designer Thomas Chippendale called the Rococo style the “Modern French Taste.” In the same year that he published his influential design book, French critic Charles-Nicolas Cochin published a scathing essay against the style. He found its “serpentine contours” and “sinuous forms” beyond logical reason. Cochin suggested that if French designers continued making Rococo-style objects, they should “serve up” this “ridiculous twisted merchandise” to “all provincials and foreigners” in order to “maintain the superiority of France.” Indeed, the French-inspired Rococo style remained popular in England and its American colonies for twenty years after Cochin’s derisive critique. The chair seen here marks the height of Rococo design in America. The back splat’s intertwined vines drape over boughs of deeply carved foliage, and the undulating front of the chair descends down to hairy animal feet.