“Double chairback settees like this one enjoyed limited popularity in Britain and the North American colonies, where they are recorded only in Massachusetts, Virginia, and South Carolina. This example, originally owned by the merchant Samuel Proctor (1731–1801) and Elizabeth Linch Proctor (c. 1731–1780), is one of seven known examples made in eastern Massachusetts, most likely in Boston. Of these, four have the so-called owl’s-eye splat pattern and stretchers found here, while the others have diamondcenter figure-eight splats and no stretchers. The Massachusetts taste for chairback settees likely originated in imported examples and may be directly connected to one purchased in London by the Boston merchant Thomas Hancock (1703–1764) in the early 1740s. The revolutionary leader John Hancock inherited the settee from his aunt Lydia Hancock (the listing of “1 Settee, crimson bottom” in his 1793 inventory likely refers to it). Based on the known history of surviving chairback settees—all linked to well-to-do merchants or royal officials—it would appear that they were an elite seating form.

The furniture designs of the London cabinetmaker Robert Manwaring, while not as well known as those of Thomas Chippendale and often overlooked, profoundly impacted American furniture. Not only was Manwaring’s Cabinet and Chair-Maker’s Real Friend and Companion (1765) the only contemporary source for chairback settees, but the owl’s-eye splat incorporated here—a common splat design in colonial Massachusetts—was an adaptation of one of Manwaring’s designs, transmitted to the colony through such published designs and by imported chairs and immigrant artisans. Massachusetts chairback settees are decidedly local in manufacture and do not directly mimic the splat designs or carved decoration of the imported London examples that inspired them. As in London, Boston examples were probably part of a set of seating furniture that included chairs and armchairs with the same splat pattern.

John Hancock owned a similar one, which is now at the American Antiquarian Society. “