Images(2)

Side chair, splat-back

Date1755-1765

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

MediumMahogany; secondary woods, Eastern white pine, and yellow pine.

DimensionsOH: 39 3/4"; OW: 22" at feet; OD: 21"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1962-233,2

DescriptionSide chair, one of a set of six. Cupid's-bow cresting rail with incised line along top front; scrolled ears, carved shell in center. Flat-fronted, slightly bowed stiles with incised line along outer front edge. Pierced splat with flat strapwork and scrolled volutes. Quadrilateral seat frame; slip-in seat held in place by rebates and quarter-round glue blocks. Tennons of side rails extend through and are flush with rear legs. Carved shell applied to center of front seat rail. Knee blocks carved with scroll which flows into curve of legs. Knee shell-carved. Legs taper to slender ankles; end in claw-and-ball feet. Stump rear legs.
Label TextOn 14 September 1779 two men came to the Philadelphia home of Henry and Elizabeth Drinker and seized a quantity of their furniture for non-payment of the "Continental tax." Among the goods taken, as noted later in Elizabeth's Drinker's journal, were "6 handsome walnut chairs with open backs, crow feet, and a shell on ye back, and on each knee..." This chair is likely one of the six taken that day. Mrs. Drinker's reference to walnut instead of mahogany is a mistake easily made by an untrained eye.

During the American Revolution, the Militia Act of 1777 required males between the ages of eighteen and fiftythree to serve in the army. An enactment of 1778 required all inhabitants to take an oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Bearing arms and taking oaths were contrary to the Quaker faith and as a result, many Pennsylvania Quakers were fined (or "taxed"). If they failed to pay the fines, their property was seized and often sold at public auction. While no documentation survives, family lore and the presence of the chairs in the family until 1962 suggest that the chairs were purchased and returned to the Drinkers by a friend.
Inscribed.1 Label on underside of rear seat rail: Written with ball-point pen on adhesive tape stuck to underside of back seat rail: "PROPERTY OF DEBORAH C. VAUGHAN". (Note: Deborah C. Vaughan is not listed in the Drinker geneaology, nor in the Journal, nor was she mentioned by Source or the Drinker descendants from whom the chairs were obtained. She is daughter of above mentioned descendant Mrs. J. H. Cloud, slated to inherit the chairs.)
.2 Label written in ink on paper glued to inside of back rail: "Elizabeth Drinker chair seized in 1779 for Continental taxes." (label removed by conservation, in OF) The paper and the writing appear to date from the late 19th or early 20th century. On the inner side of the front seat rail is a fragment of a gummed label which resembles gummed labels on chairs numbered 4, 5, and 6. No writing on this fragment.
.3 Gummed paper label affixed to inside of rear seat rail inscribed "Elizabeth Drinker Chairs seized/ in 1779 for continental taxes" (The handwriting is the same (or very similar to) the handwriting on label of chair #2, and probably dates from the same period.)
4. Gummed paper label with red border affixed to underside of rear seat rail inscribed "nephew/ George". This may have referred to George V. Downing of Salem, Va. The label and handwriting date from the late 19th or early 20th century.
5. Written in ink on fragment of gummed label with red border: "...sms" (?) Unclear.
6. Gummed paper label with red border affixed to underside of rear seat rail inscribed "..ay [Tray or Mary?]/ Brown". This may have referred to Mrs. Ellis Y. Brown of Downingtown, Pa.
MarkingsMarks: Modified Roman numeral, made with end of chisel hammered into wood on underside of front rail of slip-in seat: "11".
ProvenanceChairs acquired by Colonial Williamsburg in 1962 form Mrs. J. Howard Cloud, Ardmore, Pa.; Mrs. Ellis Y. Brown III, Downingtown, Pa.; Mrs. Clarence Lane, Easton, MD.; and Mr. George V. Downing, Salem, Va., all descendants of Henry Drinker (1743-1809) and Elizabeth (Sandwith) Drinker (1735-1807) of Philadelphia, Pa. According to them, and Mrs. Henry S. Drinker of Merion Station, Pa., chairs owned by Henry & Elizabeth Drinker and were the set mentioned on p. 120 of EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL OF ELIZABETH DRINKER (Ed. Henry D. Biddle, Philadelphia, 1889) as having been "seized" for tax; were later redeemed by a friend and returned to the Drinkers.

Line of descent appears to have been:
Elizabeth Sandwith and Henry Drinker to through their daughter Sarah Sandwith Drinker Downing (1761-1807); to daughter Mary Downing Valentine (1792-1879); to daughter Eliza S. Valentine (1826-1883), who married Thomas Stalker Downing (1813-1892) in 1845 and lived at Arrondale Farm, west of Whitford, Chester County, PA. The chairs were then divided between her children: Sarah Fox Downing Perot (1859-1944), Joseph Miller Downing (1846-1915), Mary Valentine Downing Godley (1849-1910) and Henry Drinker Downing (1856-1953) and passed to their children: Elizabeth Valentine Perot Cloud (Mrs. Howard J. Cloud, 1887-1973), George Valentine Downing (b. 1891), Mary Downing Godley Brown (Mrs. Ellis Y. Brown Jr., 1882-1974), and Mary Rebecca Downing Lane (Mrs. Clarance A Lane, b. 1891). From letters in the OF, it appears that Elizabeth V. P. Cloud (Mrs. Howard J. Cloud) collected the chairs from her cousins and sold them as a set to vendor Schuylkill House.