Smoking chair

Date1750-1775

Attributed to Robert Walker

OriginAmerica, Virginia, King George County

MediumBlack walnut and beech

DimensionsOH: 34"; OW: 23"; OD: 26"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2004-11

DescriptionAPPEARANCE: Corner chair with deep scalloped skirt; front cabriole leg with foliate carved knee, applied scrolled knee brackets (replaced), and ball and claw foot; side and rear legs slightly shaped with modified pad feet; three original castors (front castor replaced); scrolled crest rail attached to flat, curved arms terminating in discs; arms do not meet at back of chair, rather the crest rail is attached to a third element into which the central arm support is tenoned; columnar arm supports; vase shaped splats pierced with quatrefoil knot motif (one splat replaced); slipseat sits on top of rails.
Label TextLike most of the chairs attributed to Robert Walker, this corner chair-often termed a smoking chair in the south-has a northern Virginia history. The chair descended in the Fitzhugh-Ficklin family of Belmont Plantation in Falmouth, Virginia just across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg. Like the Spotswood chair (1938-199), this corner chair has a distinctively shaped ball-and-claw foot that relates to earlier baroque-style British chairs. The use of beech as a secondary wood is indicative of Walker's British training as it was not typically used in Virginia furniture.
ProvenanceDescended in the Ficklin family of "Belmont," Falmouth, Virginia.

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