slave chair, noun phrase

An antique kitchen chair of simple design, purported to have been made or used by slaves at the Cape.
1946 H.C. Bosman in L. Abrahams Cask of Jerepigo (1972) 183It was an old Cape chair with dowelling-pins less than an eighth of an inch in diameter, and the mortise and tenon joints as solid as when the chair was constructed over a century ago...I read, on the dealer’s tag.., these words, ‘Old Cape Slave Chair’.
1963 W. Fehr Treasures at Castle of G.H. 264The utility chairs made of stinkwood or yellowwood with solid square legs but attractively styled wooden backs are usually referred to as Slave chairs denoting that many of these were made by slaves, particularly on farms.
1971 Baraitser & Obholzer Cape Country Furn. p.xvWhat is the attraction of a low worn-away kitchen chair (commonly called a slave-chair: but how many slaves had shoes that could have produced the characteristic wearing-away of the front rail?).
1971 L.G. Green Taste of S.-Easter 49The so-called ‘slave chairs’, made on farms, have riempies, as cane was not easily available in the country.
1973 M.A. Cook Cape Kitchen 67Chairs..were also apt to be extremely old but were definitely kitchen chairs...Dealers usually call these chairs ‘slave chairs’, but this name is purely a flight of fancy and was designed to create an aura of romance.
An antique kitchen chair of simple design, purported to have been made or used by slaves at the Cape.
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