Images(3)

Armchair

Date1775-1800

OriginAmerica, Maryland, Eastern or Virginia, Tidewater

MediumMahogany and Yellow pine

DimensionsOH: 39 ½”; OW: 28”; OD: 19”; SD: 17 3/8”

Credit LineGift of Doris Gwaltney

Object number2016-92,1

DescriptionSlat back armchair; crest rail and three additional slats of identical serpentine shape and piercings of “cross splats” or “pretzel-back” design; crest rail flares at ends forming tri-lobed ears with large center lob and smaller side lobes; stiles, flat on front, flare slightly out towards ears; trapezoidal slip seat; seat rails are molded on outer top corners as are front legs on outer corners; rear rail has flat, applied, molded top; legs, square in cross section with chamfered inner corners; side, medial, and rear rectangular stretchers; shaped arms terminate in out-flaring carved knuckles with volutes; serpentine arm supports attached to outside of seat rails.
Label TextThis set of 6 side and 1 armchairs descended in the Purdie family of Smithfield, Virginia. They descended to the donor along with portraits of her ancestors George and Mary Robinson Purdie (d.1803 and 1809 respectively). Mary’s 1809 will lists a number of pieces of furniture that she left as bequests to her children. Included in her bequest to son John Hyndman Purdie were 14 mahogany chairs from her parlor. Some of the chairs in this set are marked with numbers greater than seven, indicating they were formerly part of a larger set. Half of a set of 14 chairs, presumably with two armchairs and twelve side chairs, would be seven chairs (one arm and six side chairs). Very likely, this is half of that original set of 14 left by Mary to her son John in 1809.

This type of slat back or cross-slat chair was popular in Philadelphia and Maryland as well as New England, but is not typically thought of as a Virginia chair design. The chairs do relate closely to chairs documented by MESDA with eastern Maryland provenances. Were the Purdie chairs imported from Pennsylvania or eastern Maryland or did a cabinetmaker from that region migrate to eastern Virginia and produce the chairs there? Philadelphia cabinetmakers like John Alcock did move South during the mid to late 18th century to Fredericksburg, Richmond, and even Norfolk. So it is quite possible that this set of chairs was made in Virginia.
MarkingsArmchair ,1: "2" in period chalk on inside of front seat rail; MESDA label for S-9521, 6/29/79 in same location; slipseat marked "2" in period chalk on underside of front rail and "3" in modern chalk on underside of proper right side rail.

Side chairs
,2: "II" chiseled inside rear seat rail; "()" gouged (curved lines) inside front seat rail; slipseat marked "IIII" inside rear rail, "X" underside front rail. "4" in modern chalk on underside of proper right side rail.

,3: "VIII" chiseled inside rear seat rail; "X" in chalk on inside of all seat rails; "X" gouged (curved lines) inside front seat rail; slipseat "()" gouged (curved lines) under front rail, "I" chiseled inside rear rail, and "1" in modern chalk on underside of proper right side rail.

,4: "V" chiseled inside rear seat rail; ")" gouged (curved line) and "2" in chalk inside front rail; slipseat: possible "1" in chalk inside front seat rail, but this may just be non-numeric chalk mark, "5" in modern chalk under the proper right side rail, "3" in pencil under rear rail

,5: "XII" chiseled inside rear rail; "X" chiseled inside front seat rail; tulip poplar slipseat replaced.

,6: "VII" chiseled inside rear seat rail. Front and side seat rails replaced: "))" gouged (curved lines) inside front seat rail, proper right side seat rail stamped in ink with "[F]ERLAZZO BROS./ Southern Antique Shops, Inc./ [4]07 BANK STREET/ N[ORFOL]K VIRGINIA USA"; tulip poplar slipseat replaced. The Ferlazzo brothers may have been Nicholas and Vincent who were listed in separate residences in the 1909 Norfolk city directory, Vincent as a polisher.

,7: "III" chiseled inside rear seat rail; "X" in black crayon over top of chiseled number inside rear seat rail; slipseat: "II" chiseled inside rear rail, "X" gouged (curved lines) underside of front rail.

ProvenanceDescended in the Purdie family from George and Mary Robinson Purdie to son Dr. John Hyndman Purdie (1770-1845) to son Dr. John Robinson Purdie (1807-1896), to son Thomas Smith Purdie (1854-1923) to son Kenneth Sinclair Purdie (1892-1983), to cousin, donor, Doris Gwaltney.