Images(3)

Side Chair

Date1795-1810

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

MediumMahogany, mahogany veneer, cherry front rail, ash side and rear rails.

DimensionsOH: 34 1/8"; OW: 21"; OD: 19 ¾"; SD: 17 1/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Sara and Fred Hoyt Furniture Fund

Object number2008-22

DescriptionAPPEARANCE: Side chair with square back, extended upwards in center; stiles and rails of back molded; vase or urn carved center splat with Prince of Wales feathers at top and swagged drapery flanked by two molded and carved banisters; turned and fluted front legs; tapered rear legs square in cross section; bowed or "sweep" front seat rail; upholstery half over the rail with mahogany veneer and solid astragal molding below.
CONSTRUCTION: Unpinned mortise and tenon joinery used to attach crest to back, splat to crest and stay rail, stay rail to back stile and seat rails to legs. Two lapped chamfered glue blocks at rear are possibly original, front glue blocks (single blocks with horizontal grain) replaced.
Label TextThis Philadelphia chair is from a suite owned in the 19th century by members of the Schoolbred and Lucas families at Woodville and Wedge plantations, adjoining properties on the Santee River in Charleston County, South Carolina. The appearance of Philadelphia furniture in the Lowcountry during this period speaks to the South’s growing post-Revolutionary coastal trade with Mid-Atlantic and New England ports. The chair design, adapted from a plate in Thomas Sheraton’s 1793 London publication, "The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book," was quite popular in Philadelphia.
ProvenanceThis chair is one of group that has a history of descent in the Lucas Family of Wedge Plantation on the Santee River in South Carolina. A late 19th century Lucas family sketch showing two of these chairs and CWF #1930-156 bears an inscription stating that they were purchased from James Schoolbred of nearby Woodville Plantation probably by Alexander Hume Lucas in 1870. An early 20th century photograph shows a related armchair and side chair from this set on the porch of The Wedge.