Side chair

Status

Not on view

Label Text

Family history maintains Abigail McLean of Wilmington, Delaware purchased a set of eight Gothic-splat side chairs at Mount Vernon in the 1850s, with the understanding they had been owned by George and Martha Washington. Daniel Lammot, also of Wilmington, later purchased four of these eight chairs, three of which have since returned to Mount Vernon. Whether or not the Washingtons originally owned them remains to be proven.

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Date1765-1785

Geography Made - United States

Medium/TechniqueMahogany (primary), white cedar (glue blocks)

DimensionsOverall (H x W x D): 38 in. x 23 3/8 in. x 20 1/4 in. (96.52 cm x 59.37 cm x 51.44 cm)

Credit LineBequest of Mrs. Pierre S. Du Pont, 1945

Object numberW-1464/B

DescriptionSide chair with a foliate-carved, undulating or scalloped crest rail and circular, foliate-carved ears, an interlaced Gothic strapwork splat seated within a beaded shoe, a trapezoidal seat frame with rounded top edges and flat-arched side and front rails, and plain cabriole front legs with arissed knees, ogee knee blocks, and claw-and-ball feet. Flat-faced, pierced splat with six ribs of interlaced Gothic tracery above a quatrefoil with a pointed base and two opposing leaf piercings. Crest rail and stiles with a single bead along their outside edge. Raked-back stiles flat on front and rounded at back with double-pegged through tenons and oval legs and feet below the seat rail. Four filled holes in lower rear rail illustrate where a copper plaque was formerly affixed

Reproduction ethafoam slip-seat upholstered in pale blue (now faded to white) silk damask with a central palm-tree pattern.

Published ReferencesMarion Day Iverson, The American Chair, 1630-1890 (New York: Hastings House, 1957), 213.

William Macpherson Honor, Jr., Blue Book, Philadelphia Furniture: William Penn to George Washington, with Special Reference to the Philadelphia-Chippendale School (Philadelphia: Honor, 1935), plate 361.

MarkingsInscribed into the top of the front seat rail: "III".

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