Side Chair

Date1765-1790

MediumAll components of black walnut

DimensionsOH. 37"; OW 19"; SD 16 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1933-10

DescriptionAppearance: Splat-back side chair with slightly yoked crest rail terminating in out flaring rounded ears carved with volutes above a tapering splat pierced with six vertical lozenges (three above three), held by a shaped shoe; trapezoidal slip-seat; seat rails rounded on top edges; straight legs, square in cross section; rear legs flare to back; rectangular front stretcher positioned slightly higher than side stretchers; no rear stretcher.
Construction: Like many other Petersburg chairs, the joints of the seat frame are pinned. The shoe overhangs the inside of the rear seat rail by 1/2". The seat rails are deeply rabbeted, a common feature on Petersburg chairs.

Label TextThis chair, which descended in the family of politician and Petersburg-area native John Randolph "of Roanoke" (1773-1833), is characteristic of the furniture produced in Petersburg in the third quarter of the eighteenth century. Standard among design features for Petersburg chairs are the prominently voluted and carved ears, the omission of a rear stretcher despite the presence of one in the front, and the unusual placement of the chair's set number in the left seat rail rabbet. A number of closely related Petersburg chairs are known. Examples that appear to be from the same shop include a set of four black walnut side chairs with identically shaped splats (CWF acc. 1933-40) and a more elaborate set made of cherry and featuring the same voluted ears and stretcher arrangement. The cherry chairs descended in the Eppes family of Appomattox Manor, an estate in Prince George County just outside Petersburg, and are now in the collection of Wilton House, Richmond.

Some details common to Petersburg seating furniture relate directly to those on contemporary British models, which is not surprising given the city's strong economic and cultural ties to the mother country. A provincial British chair in the CWF collection bears a striking resemblance to the Randolph chair (CWF acc. 1983-224), and documented examples with virtually identical voluted ears were made in Norwich in East Anglia. Just as these design elements were transmitted from Britain to Petersburg, so they were eventually conveyed from Petersburg into the surrounding countryside. The strong trade connections noted above are undoubtedly responsible for the appearance of prominent scroll-shaped ears on chairs attributed to North Carolina's Roanoke River basin.
InscribedA badly worn and oxidized typewritten label affixed to the interior surface of the front seat rail reads "This chair formerly in possession of the Bland family. President . . . at . . ."
Markings"X" is chiseled into the rabbet on the left seat rail, indicating there were at least ten chairs in the set.
ProvenanceThe chair was purchased in 1933 from Jane Pulliam, a Richmond, Va., antiques dealer. It has a tradition of ownership by John Randolph of Roanoke (1773-1833), a famed American legislator and diplomat. The son of John and Frances Bland Randolph, he was raised at Matoax plantation in Chesterfield County, across the Appomattox from Petersburg. He later moved to Roanoke plantation in Charlotte County, where the chair remained until the early twentieth century.