Side chair

Status

Not 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), yellow pine, white pine (corner blocks)

DimensionsOverall (H x W x D): 36 1/4 in. x 21 1/4 in. x 19 1/2 in. (92.08 cm x 53.98 cm x 49.53 cm)

Credit LineGift of Emily L. Harper, Vice Regent for Maryland, 1874

Object numberW-99

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 and raked back stiles flat on front and rounded at back; slats flat on both sides. Front seat rail secured with a single peg at each front leg. Rear seat rail with applied molding on top face. Raked-back rear legs with 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 composed of a single piece of wood with vertical grain

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 back of the rear seat rail: "XII" Several other "X" marks are also chiseled into the back of the rear seat rail. Chiseled on the slip-seat frame: "IX" and "X"

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