Leslie Keno: As a furniture form, armchairs are very inviting. The arms have elbows and handholds with knuckles, just like people do. They're open, as if reaching out to someone.

Leigh Keno: Antique armchairs also give you a sense of history because many other people once sat in them. This example is a Chippendale mahogany child's armchair, made in Boston or Salem, Massachusetts, around 1765. Leslie: It has a cupid's-bow crest above a splat with accentuated carved and swept-back ears. The splat has a classic Boston pattern, with interlaced pierced strapwork; it's flanked by shapely arms with scrolled handholds and an interesting cooped-out elbow area. The little seat’s molded rail encloses a slip-in seat cushion. The seat is raised on short cabriole legs ending in claw and ball feet with retracted side talons, which is signature Boston. The ball is slightly flattened; the rear legs are square and somewhat flared.

Leigh: The chair also retains its original maple seat cushion frame with some of its original webbing and muslin. The seat frame has never been taken apart, and it wasn't cut down from a bigger chair. The shallow rail and molding profile along the top edge are distinctive of an entire group of full-size Salem and Boston chairs from the same period. Although he was fabricating a child's chair, the cabinetmaker didn't stray far from the norm.

Leslie: A highly stylized chair like this one actually shows how much children of the time were expected to behave like adults. Portraits painted during the same period usually depict children as very serious in demeanor and dress. Leigh: The head of the house was expected to sit in an adult-size counterpart, so this chair would have been for a very special boy or girl. It has all the bells and whistles.

Leslie: Where did you find it?

Leigh: In a small New York auction house. I remember walking in and seeing it at a preview. The first thing I did was reach down, pop up the maple slip-in seat, and flip it over. It was clearly a period frame with holes from 18th-century nails. Then I saw the original muslin and webbing. There was no question that it was an 18th-century frame. It had been catalogued as a Chippendale-style copy. The estimate was under $1,000.

Leslie: It was a real sleeper.

Leigh: I had microscopy done, and it turns out that the splat and rest rail have slightly later surface histories than the rest of the wood. But it doesn't matter because I never intend to sell the chair. I've given it to Brandon, my four-year-old son, who had a very adult lunch of pizza in it today. He's proud of it. He says, "There's my chair, Daddy."

Leslie: He's one lucky boy.