Side chair

Status

On view

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), white cedar (corner blocks)

DimensionsOverall (H x W x D): 37 1/4 in. x 20 3/16 in. x 19 9/16 in. (94.62 cm x 51.33 cm x 49.68 cm)

Credit LineMount Vernon Collection

Object numberW-98

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 of the side rails. 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. Quarter-round corner blocks on the proper left side and the proper right front each composed of a single piece of wood with vertical grain; proper right rear corner block is a later replacement.

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: "XIII" Chiseled on the slip-seat frame: "XV"

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