(Mosaic Chair), (sculpture).

(Mosaic Chair), (sculpture).

Grassle, Charles F., sculptor.

Baird & Grassle Marble Works, fabricator.

(Mosaic Chair), (sculpture).

Baird Chair, (sculpture).

Digital Reference:

Sculpture: sandstone; Foundation: concrete.

Sculpture: approx. 46 x 25 x 25 in.; Foundation: approx. 3 x 32 x 32 in.

(On back of sculpture, on crossbar, in relief:) BAIRD unsigned

A straight-backed, armless chair carved in sandstone. The chair frame is designed as roughly cut logs, complete with bark, knot holes and branches cut off near the trunk. The base, though a solid square, gives the impression of legs from front and side views. The seat is padded in tufted, buttoned squares; there are tassels at both front corners. They are connected with a top crossbar. "BAIRD" is carved in relief on the crossbar which is draped with a long sash or scarf. The ends of the drape, which are tasseled, hang down the back of the proper right upright. A large potted fern sits in the recessed area between the legs in front; a sheaf of wheat (?) encircled by a fern frond is between the legs, proper right; a flower is growing between the legs, proper left.

Object -- Furniture -- Chair

Homage -- Baird, David

Homage -- Baird, Anna

Object -- Foliage -- Fern

Outdoor Sculpture -- Missouri -- Kirksville

Administered by Highland Park Cemetery Association, P. O. Box 63, Kirksville, Missouri 63501

Located Highland Park Cemetery, Lot C-63, Kirksville, Missouri

The exact origins of the sculpture are not known. It may be a copy of a chair found in ancient Italian ruins and may originally have been made as an advertisement for Baird & Grassle Marble Works. Grassle and Baird were two of four men who organized Highland Parks Cemetery in 1895, and the sculpture may mark the graves of Baird's parents, David and Anna. David Baird, born in 1833, was a marble cutter and tombstone dealer. His wife Anna died in 1912. The Grassle family managed the Cemetery for many years.

The sculpture's concrete foundation was added around 1991. IAS files contain clippings from the Kirksville Week Graphic, March 6, 1891, pg. 3, and The Chariton Collector 1 (April 1981): pg. 20-21. IAS files also contain additional bibliographic citations for more information on cemetery and Grassle family.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Missouri survey, 1995.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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