Elegant Hitchcock accent chairs originally caned, now comfortably upholestered in green velvet. Stenciled medallion. Front legs and stretchers nicely turned. Pricing for the pair.

The Hitchcock chair takes its name from its creator, Lambert Hitchcock (1795-1852). A Connecticut cabinetmaker, he settled in Barkhamsted, a small town in the northwestern corner of the state, in 1818. There he began making chair parts for shipping and assembly. By 1820-21, he put into operation a bigger plan: the manufacturing of entire chairs.  Painted dark (instead of using dark polished woods) and stenciled (instead of carved or inlaid), they were fancy chairs for ordinary people.

The small, light chairs were a hit, selling up and down the Eastern seaboard and into the interior of the rapidly growing young United States. By 1825, Hitchcock had moved to a bigger factory, one that employed 100 people. In its heyday, throughout the 1820s and 1830s, the company produced up to 300 chairs a week.