What is an Eastern Connecticut Windsor Chair?
The Eastern Connecticut-Rhode Island border region was the home of a number of Windsor chair makers during and after the American Revolution. A whole school of chair making evolved under one family led by Ebenezer Tracy. The captain, who lived and worked in Lisbon, created a unique and beautiful style, one marked by bold turnings, widely splayed legs and painstakingly carved seats. The captain, his three sons, two sons-in-law, and various apprentices created thousands of highly distinctive chairs in various forms – writing arm, fan back, bow back, continuous arm and settee, among others. Today, surviving Tracy chairs are highly prized by collectors. Windsors of Stonington specializes in reproducing interpretations of this great master – and other regional styles – in nearly all details, except the use of Chestnut wood, which no longer grows in the area’s rocky soil. About Bob Bob Gilbert has been making Windsor chairs since 1990 when he took up woodworking as a release from his high-pr
