A Unique Slant of Light: The Bicentennial History of Art in Louisiana - (Page 375)

other surviving armchairs, are the horizontal bar between each arm and seat rail. It is used to assist in containing the thick downstuffed cushion. Over-the-rail upholstered armchairs are extremely rare in early Louisiana furniture. It is known, however, in an era when textiles were hand-loomed and expensive, that seat cushions and back cushions were made for slat-back armchairs. In Louisiana’s hot, humid climate, textiles suffered and replacing cushions was far simpler and less costly than having to reupholster. The cushions were generally fabricated from chequered linen in indigo blue on white or from copperplate printed cottons, called toile de jouy in French. The printed cottons were frequently of English manufacture and were found in Louisiana in blue, red, yellow, green or aubergine, as seen on the illustrated chair. The spindle-back Creole chairs (page 381), while not technically slat-back form, fall within the group with their well-articulated turned stretcher system and spool turned legs. Their baluster-turned spindles compare with the best American spindle-back chairs from any period. All of the chairs in this form, save one, have been discovered on the Acadian Prairie where Acadians and Creoles frequently lived side by side. Interestingly, this chair with its old-fashioned os de mouton arms is made of ash rather than the usual mulberry or walnut, favored by the Creoles. Found at Darby Plantation near New Iberia, an area sparsely settled, indicates its later date of fabrication, possibly 1820-1840. The Acadians, French-Canadian small farmers, fishermen, and trappers, were evicted by the British from their land in Canada’s Maritime Provinces following the French and Indian War. They did not immediately come to Louisiana. Some went to France while others migrated slowly down the eastern seaboard, with the first arriving in 1768 at the beginning of the Spanish period. That they were people of modest means, dictated that the furniture of the Acadians would be generally less sophisticated than that of their Creole and Anglo-American neighbors. Initially settled on the Mississippi River above New Orleans, they soon spread onto Bayou LaFourche, but the majority advanced into the Acadian prairie. Their heartland centered on present-day Lafayette. The slat-back chairs of the Acadians are for the most part far plainer than that of the Creoles and, as mentioned before, Creole-Style Flush-Panel Armoire, ca. 1820-1835 Mahogany with tulip poplar and white pine; mahogany veneer; 89 x 61 x 23 in. Wayne and Cheryl Stromeyer Collection Photograph by Jim Zietz, courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection employing local hardwoods such as hickory and ash. Unlike the Creoles who preferred rush seats, the Acadians used cowhide. There is a group of slat-back chairs made only in the St. Martinville area that match in exuberance any of the Creole chairs. The Acadian slat-back chair on page 380, with its CREOLE AND ACADIAN TRADITIONS OF EARLY LOUISIANA FURNITURE 375 

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