Elastic Chair
Made by Samuel Gragg
Boston, Massachusetts, ca.1808
Oak, hickory, beech
On loan from the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, museum purchase, gift of Martha and William Steen

Assembly
Gragg’s innovative bentwood chair construction included an unusual adaptation of a traditional joinery technique: dovetails. These fan-shaped interlocking joints connect the steam-bent elements on the back and seat to the horizontal pieces of the chair frame. Each dovetail is then secured with a small nail. In the early nineteenth century, dovetails rarely were used in chairs, but commonly joined the large boards in chests of drawers, desks, and other pieces of case furniture.

Roll over left chair leg to view detail