Bill did it again. Several years ago he brought me a beautiful fan-back sidechair. Researching its provenence I discovered that it had been made by the Tracy family of Connecticutt. Bill called me last fall and said he had another chair he wanted me to look at.

When he arrived at the shop we set the small chair on the workbench and stood back to look at it from all angles. Bill asked, "Does it look too narrow to you?" It did look narrow in relation to the height of the bow. The seat was only 15 1/2 inches wide at it's widest. Still, the baluster turnings were simple, graceful, and well proportioned with the rest of the chair. The back bow was beautifully shaped. We agreed that overall the small chair had more merits than faults. I proceeded to measure it and prepared working drawings so that I could reproduce the chair.

And, typically for me, the more I worked on the chair, the more I appreciated the design decisions and economical use of tools that the original maker put into his work.

The result is a charming, elegant side chair perfect by itself or grouped around a festive table.

The only downside is that the original was unsigned. Pouring through my books on Winsors, I have been unable to find a matching chair with attribution to a given maker.