Bow-back Windsor side chair

Status

On view

Label Text

Like their contemporaries, George and Martha Washington used attractive, durable, and relatively inexpensive Windsor chairs in a variety of spaces. The household inventory taken after George Washington died records 30 placed outside on the Mansion's piazza, with another 10 in a first-floor parlor and 5 more in two upstairs bedrooms. This chair may be one of those owned by the Washingtons.

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Date1785-1800

Geography Possibly made - United States

Medium/TechniqueTulip poplar (seat), possibly oak or ash (bow and spindles), possibly maple (legs and stretchers)

DimensionsOverall (H x W x D): 37 1/8 in. x 20 7/8 in. x 17 5/8 in. (94.3 cm x 53.02 cm x 44.77 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Family of Colonel Colville Penrose Terrett, 1925

Object numberW-228

DescriptionBow-back Windsor side chair with seven, three-part, bamboo-turned spindles, a shield-shaped seat, and four splayed, three-part, bamboo-turned legs joined by H-mounted stretchers. The continuous bow-back is beaded along the edges of its flat front face and rounded at back; its ends are tenoned through the seat and wedged. The spindles are tenoned into the seat and bow; four of the spindles, two on either side of the central spindle, extend through the bow and are wedged. The plank seat has a deep groove outlining the front of the spindle area and the top back edge is beaded. Each leg is tenoned through the seat and wedged. The bamboo-turned stretcher support has two-part, single-swell side stretchers and a three-part, very slight, double-swell medial stretcher. Traces of a dark, painted finish are present in the grooves of the spindles, legs, and stretchers.

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