Armchair, ladderback

Date1770-1800

MediumMaple, yellow pine, and ash splint seat

DimensionsOH: 39 7/8"; OW: 23 3/8"; OD: 21 1/2"; SD: 17 3/4"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1972-204

DescriptionArmchair with splint seat; cylindrical turned posts with compressed baluster turnings just above seat on stiles and just below sat on front legs; stiles taper slightly towards top terminating in an egg shaped finial on a tall post; three shaped and arched splats (top splat reshaped) between stiles; front legs have baluster shaped arm supports and inverted abbreviated baluster shaped feet (rear feet have worn away); sawn arms with swaged lower edge and rounded terminals that extend past arm supports; double side and front round stretchers, single rear stretcher; remnants of green paint on seat.
ProvenanceVendor or his father purchased chair from a lcoal dealer/restorer a Mr. J. A. Wright on Cary Street, Richmond, Virginia around 1957. Vendor stated that "Mr. Wright said that the chair was used by the man [from whom he obtained it] in an old school house and that the chair had been a school masters chair. Mr. Wright said that the chair was a Virginia chair." (see object file for full letter from H. Marshall Goodman Jr., 5/9/1972.)