Samuel Gragg

United States

Person

Designer

Born 25 October 1772 Peterborough, New Hampshire, USA Died 1855 probably Boston, Massachusetts, USA Samuel Gragg probably acquired his first woodworking skills before 1793 on the farm of his father Samuel Gregg, a trained wheelwright. In 1793 he moved to New York State, probably to join his older brother John in the Mohawk Valley. From 1801 he ran a chairmaking workshop in Boston, Massachusetts; from no later than 1804 until 1808 he worked in partnership with his brother-in-law William Hutchins. Gragg produced mainly Windsor chairs, including examples inspired by Asian bamboo furniture. In 1808 he was granted a patent for a chair with a seat and backrest made of bent solid wood slats, known as the Elastic Chair. This design was his most important innovation and established him as an early pioneer of bentwood construction in the United States. Many chairs produced in his workshop thereafter bore a reference to the patent.