BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Anacostia -- Public Art: The Big Chair

DC -- Anacostia -- Public Art: The Big Chair:

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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[1] CHAIR_200507_01.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[2] CHAIR_200507_06.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[3] CHAIR_200507_09.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[4] CHAIR_200507_12.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. CHAIR_200507_06.JPG: The World's Largest Chair Presented to Curtis Bros. for their outstanding leadership and service to the public by the Bassett Furniture Industries. The chair made of solid Honduras mahogany is 19-1/2 feet tall and weighs 4600 pounds. Dedicated July 11, 1959 Designer: Leo M. Jiranek Builder: J.E. Bassett, Jr.
2. CHAIR_200507_09.JPG: The Big Chair Re-dedication April 25, 2006. This community landmark represents the Curtis Companies long standing allegiance to the neighborhood and steadfast commitment to unity, prosperity and good will to all Washingtonians and friends of Anacostia. Designers: John Kidwell & A Lomax Project Fabricators: Cinnabar & Nelson's Welding
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Wikipedia Description: Chair (sculpture)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chair is a public artwork designed as an advertisement by Bassett Furniture, located at the intersection of Martin Luther King Ave. and V. Street S.E., in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States of America. Chair was originally surveyed as part of the Smithsonian's Save Outdoor Sculpture! survey in 1994. It was once considered the world's largest chair, but has been overtaken by works like Broken Chair in Geneva and the temporary The Writer on Hampstead Heath in London.

Description

The chair, which stands 19 1/2 feet high, is a detail-to-detail replica of a Duncan Phyfe style chair. Painted brown with a white and brown striped "cushion", the chair is entirely made of aluminum. Weighing between 4,000 and 4,600 pounds, the chair sits on a concrete base.

Acquisition

The chair was built in 1959 by Virginia-based furniture maker Bassett Furniture. The concept for the chair came from Charles Curtis, of the Curtis Brothers Furniture company, as a clever way to bring customers to their family showroom which was located on the grounds where the chair is currently placed.

The piece was dedicated on July 11, 1959, and a plaque was placed with it, stating:

THE WORLD'S LARGEST CHAIR
PRESENTED TO
CURTIS BROS.
FOR THEIR OUTSTANDING LEADERSHIP
AND SERVICE TO THE PUBLIC/BY THE
BASSETT FURNITURE INDUSTRIES.
THE CHAIR MADE OF SOUND HONDURAS MAHOGANY
IS 19 1/2 FEET TALL AND WEIGHS 4000 POUNDS
DEDICATED JULY 11, 1959
DESIGNED
LEO M. HIRAMETT
BUILT BY J. E. BASSETT, JR.

Re-dedication

John Kidwell, the caretaker of the Chair, frequently patched holes that would form after heavy rains with cement. During the days of August 23–24, 2005, the original Chair was disassembled by a backhoe and taken away for restoration. Made entirely of Honduras Mahogany, the legs had begun to rot. On April 25, 2006, the chair was returned by Curtis ...More...
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Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (DC -- Anacostia -- Public Art: The Big Chair) directly related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]:
- 2021_DC_Big_Chair: DC -- Anacostia -- Public Art: The Big Chair (5 photos from 2021)
- 2017_DC_Big_Chair: DC -- Anacostia -- Public Art: The Big Chair (5 photos from 2017)
- 2013_DC_Big_Chair: DC -- Anacostia -- Public Art: The Big Chair (3 photos from 2013)
- 2004_DC_Big_Chair: DC -- Anacostia -- Public Art: The Big Chair (2 photos from 2004)
Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [Public Art]
2020 photos: Well, that was a year, wasn't it? The COVID-19 pandemic cut off most events here in DC after March 11. The child president's handling of the pandemic was a series of disastrous missteps and lies, encouraging his minions to not wear masks and dramatically increasing infections and deaths here.The BLM protests started in June, made all the worse by the child president's inability to have any empathy for anyone other than himself. Then of course he tried to steal the election in November. What a year! Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000. The farthest distance I traveled after that was about 40 miles. I only visited sites in four states -- Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and DC. That was the least amount of travel I had done since 1995. Number of photos taken this year: about 246,000, the fewest number of photos I had taken in any year since 2007.
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