Images(2)

Side Chair, Backstool

Dateca. 1750

MediumMahogany, brown oak, cherry, beech, and ash

DimensionsOH: 40"; OW: 25"; OD: 28 3/4"; SD: 22"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund and the TIF Foundation in memory of Michelle A. Iverson

Object number2012-25

DescriptionAppearance:
Back stool with rectangular upholstered back and trapezoidal upholstered seat; front cabriole legs carved with C scrolls and leaves on knees and knee blocks and terminate in hairy paw feet; rounded tapered rear legs rake towards back, terminate in squared feet; upholstered in reproduction red silk velvet (fragment of original red silk discovered under a nail on chair frame) with red silk tape and widely spaced brass nails (based on original nailing pattern); seat and back upholstery tufted; outback of red worsted.

Construction:
Originally made as a side chair, the chair was converted into a back-stool early in its history. The side and front seat rails were replaced, with the sawed off residual tenons remaining in the front legs. Replacement side rails were then tenoned into new mortises in the front legs and into existing mortises in the back legs. The replaced rear seat rail is also tenoned into existing mortises in the legs. The knee blocks of the front legs are glued to the rails and legs and have been relieved to lap join the integral returns of the side and front rails, which have similarly been relived. All four corners of the seat frame are fitted with beveled open braces let into the rails.

The replacement oak back frame consists of a lower rail tenoned into stiles which are in turn tenoned into the crest rail. The crest rail and stiles are chamfered on the outside front edge. On chair 2012-26 a piece of Scots pine has been glued to the top of the crest rail and chamfered.

To accommodate the replacement back frame, the original stiles were sawn off at a slant on their front faces, just above the seat rails. (Prior to the conversion of the chair to a back-stool the legs were integral with the stiles of the chair’s back.) The stiles of the replacement back frame are notched and relieved then glued and screwed with two large screws to the slanted surfaces of the residual stile. Oak fill pieces are glued in place to fill the void where the replacement stile overlapped the chamfered original stile and create a smooth surface for upholstery.
Label TextThis impressive back stool was likely one of twelve ordered from England around 1750 for use in the Council Chamber of Virginia's Capitol. The suite also featured a matching ceremonial armchair for the royal governor. The council, consisting of twelve elite Virginians, met in the chamber to advise the Governor on matters affecting the entire colony. As befitting their position in society and government, these counselors sat in very expensive chairs made of highly carved tropical mahogany upholstered in red silk and adorned with polished brass tacks. This costly seating was rarely seen in Virginia. Only two Virginia families, the Beverleys of Blandfield Plantation and the Byrds of Westover Plantation, are known to have owned sets of imported British back stools in the mid-18th century.

Red silk fibers discovered on the frame of this chair suggest that the original upholstery was of that material, as is the reproduction velvet you see today. The same upholstery and tacks were also used on the royal governor's armchair along with a silk fringe. The armchair, used by the crown's representative in Virginia was elevated like a throne, with carved lion's head arms and the same foliate carved knees and paw feet as the back stools. The armchair's higher stance was meant to convey the governor's importance, superior even to that of the councilors seated in the matching back stools.
ProvenanceOwned by Mary Tyler McCormack Wilbur (1915-1981) in Warrenton, Virginia.