Side chair
Label Text
During the time Washington spent in Philadelphia before and after the Revolution and during the Presidency, he came to appreciate the quality, style, and affordable price of the furnishings produced by its artisans. Pierced "scroll'd splatt" chairs were among the most popular offerings of Philadelphia cabinetmakers in the late eighteenth century. Washington may have purchased chairs such as this one to serve as plain but fashionable seating throughout the less formal rooms at Mount Vernon.
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Date1780-1800
Geography
Made -
United States
Medium/TechniqueMahogany (primary)
DimensionsOverall (H x W x D): 37 5/8 in. x 20 7/8 in. x 19 1/2 in. (95.58 cm x 53.04 cm x 49.53 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, 1945
Object numberW-1462
DescriptionSlat-back side chair with three pierced serpentine cross-slats looped at center below a matching crest rail with circular, sprigged ears, a trapezoidal seat frame beaded along its top edge, and straight, square or Marlborough front legs beaded on their outside corners joined by H-mounted stretchers and a rear stretcher mounted higher between the rear legs. Crest rail is beaded on the front on each end along its upper and lower edge, but not in the center, and rounded at back; raked-back stiles molded on the front and rounded at back; slats flat on both sides. Seat rails secured with a single peg on the front and rear corners of the side rails and on each side of the front rail. Raked-back rear legs with double-pegged through tenons and square feet; all legs chamfered on the inside corner. Extensions have been added at the bottom of the front and back legs. The corner blocks appear to be modern replacements.Other terms for this design include: pretzel-back, ladder-back, loop-back, ribbon-back.
Trapezoidal slip-seat frame upholstered in green haircloth; a black synthetic spun-bonded textile covers the bottom of the slip-seat.
Published ReferencesAnne Castrodale Golovin, "Daniel Trotter: Eighteenth Century Philadelphia Cabinetmaker" Winterthur Portfolio 6 (1970): 171-173.
Helen Maggs Fede, Washington Furniture at Mount Vernon (Mount Vernon, Virginia: Mount Vernon Ladies Association, 1966), 28-30.
Charles Montgomery, American Furniture: The Federal Period (New York: The Viking Press, 1966), 81.
Helen Comstock, American Furniture: Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Century Styles (New York: The Viking Press, 1962), fig. 281.
Marion Day Iverson, The American Chair: 1630-1890 (New York: Hastings House Publishers, 1957), 208 -209, 211.
MarkingsChiseled on the inside of the front seat rail: "XVIIII".
Chiseled on the slip-seat frame: "IXX".
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