Side Chair

Date1765-1775

Possibly by James Allan (1716 - 1789)

MediumAll components of black walnut (by microanalysis).

DimensionsOH: 35 5/8"; OW: 20"; SD: 16"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1930-23,1

DescriptionAppearance: Serpentine crest rail with recessed center element; shaped, nearly parallel stiles; pierced and interlaced splat of gothic design with a pair of carved rosettes on either side of center; splat mortised into molded shoe; shoe and rear seat rail two separate pieces; seat rails have (replaced) molded upper edge; marlborough front legs have beaded outer edge; rear legs square in section and raked back slightly; H-plan stretchers plus rear stretcher.

Construction: Standard mortise-and-tenon joinery is used on the chair, though the joints are not pinned. The shoe is twice the thickness of the rear seat rail and overhangs its inner face considerably. Curiously, the upper 5/8" along the inside of the seat rails in between the corner blocks projects an additional 1/8," a feature not noted on other Virginia chairs. The medial stretcher is dovetailed into the side stretchers with a large V-shaped joint exposed at the top.
Label TextWith its distinctive Gothic splat and carved rosettes, this chair represents a pattern for which no exact parallel has been discovered in either America or Britain. From an extant set of six, the chair's history is unknown before 1930 when it was purchased from an antiques dealer in Washington, D. C. Evidence suggests that it was made in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The attribution is based partly on the existence of several chairs in the Fredericksburg area with equally unusual splats, and partly on the relationship of this chair to one that descended in the Barrett family of Falmouth, directly across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg (see SOUTHERN FURNITURE, fig. 20.1). The CWF chair and the Barrett example each feature a complex splat with large rosettes, a deeply coved splat shoe with a filleted quarter-round molding at the top, and open knee brackets on either side of the front legs. More compelling still is a one-inch-thick strip of wood nailed to the inner face of the rear seat rail in the Barrett chair to provide additional support for the slip-seat frame. Oxidation patterns and a row of screw holes on the CWF chair indicate that it originally featured the same element, which, though common on British seating furniture, is rarely found in American chairs.

Possibly made by James Allan, Fredericksburg, VA.
InscribedNone.
MarkingsNone.
ProvenancePurchased by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn in 1930 for the Daphne Room at the Raleigh Tavern from Washington, DC, antiques dealer F. St. George Spendlove.