Side chair

Date1760-1800

MediumBlack walnut and yellow pine

DimensionsOH: 37"; OW: 19 11/2"; OD: 19 1/4"; SD: 16 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1995-107,1

DescriptionSide chair, one of a set of 10, each with a flat crest shaped on the underside above a tapered beaker-form splat, the plain seat rail below enclosing a trapezoidal slip seat, legs square in cross section joined by box stretchers, front and rear stretchers higher than side stretchers.
ProvenanceAcquired from Sotheby's, 1334 York Avenue, New York, Sale #6731 Fine Americana, Lot 238, June 22, 1995; the property of a direct descendant of the original owner, William Fitzgerald (Fitzgarrald) of "Leinster", Nottaway County (formerly a part of Amelia County), Virginia.

Each chair bears the typed inscription on the inside rear seat rail "One of ten chairs made circa 1750 made of local walnut by an indentured servant of William Fitzgarrald (Fitzgerald) for his home "Leinster" in Nottaway County (formerly a part of Amelia County), Virginia, located on a patent of 1,817 acres received in 1742 by a royal grant from King George II of Great Britain. William Fitzgarrald was a younger son of Robert Fitzgarrald, Marquess of Kildair, and later the Duke of Leinster. William Fitzgarrald came to America from London, but originally was from Leinster, Ireland. Above from the Virginia Fitzgarralds by Mary Ann Fitzgarrald Forman (1891)."