Armchair, bamboo style

Date1765-1770

MediumBeech and paint

DimensionsOH: 36 1/2"; OW: (across arms) 25 3/4"; OD: 18"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1979-196

DescriptionBamboo style armchair; square back with diagonal latticework; out curving arms and C shaped arm supports with latticework between arms and seat; trapezoidal saddle seat; straight rounded legs with side, medial, and rear stretchers; pierced knee brackets between front seat rail and legs. All parts shaped to replicate bamboo.
Label TextVirginia's Royal Governor, Lord Botetourt's 1770 probate inventory listed "8 Green bamboo chairs with check'd cushions" in the chamber over the dining room of the Williamsburg, Virginia Governor's Palace. Similar documented chairs were made in 1767 by John Linnell, a contemporary of Chippendale and one of the leading London cabinetmakers of the period. Linnell twice made furniture for the home of the Dukes of Beaufort, where Botetourt's sister and brother-in-law lived. It is inevitable that the Virginia governor knew similar if not identical examples to this and it is tantalizing to surmise that he might have patronized Linnell for the chairs used in the Governor's Palace.