Side Chair

Date1785-1800

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Norfolk (probably)

MediumMahogany, yellow pine (by microanalysis), holly, and maple

DimensionsOH: 38 3/8"; OW: 20"; OD: 20 3/4"; SD: 17 5/8"

Credit Line"Bequest of Lucy L. and Louise M. Powell and gift of Francis T. S. and Grace E. Powell."

Object number1956-275,1

DescriptionAppearance: shield-shaped back with five vertical elements ending in half-round base element; base element has inlaid maple fan with singed shading and holly single-strung upper edge; crest rail, stiles, and five vertical splat elements inlaid with single string at both edges of their front surfaces; over-rail upholstered trapezoidal seat with serpentine front seat rail; four tapered legs; front legs inlaid with single string in round and gothic arch pattern with inlaid dot; no evidence regarding appearance of now-missing arms.

Construction: all elements of mahogany except as noted; stiles and five vertical splat elements tenoned into crest rail; splat elements tenoned into splat rail; splat rail tenoned into stiles; arms (now missing) were tenoned into stiles and secured from behind with screws; arm supports were screwed to side rails from inside (screws still in place behind original diagonal braces); yellow pine seat rails tenoned into legs; yellow pine diagonal corner braces tenoned into seat rails and secured with wrought rose-head nails; rear seat rail veneered with mahogany.
Label TextWith secondary woods of yellow pine and a solid history in the Cuthbert family of Norfolk, Virginia, it is quite likely that this chair and its mate were made in that seaport. Both chairs were originally armchairs.
InscribedNone
ProvenanceThis chair and its mate descended from James Cuthbert and Frances Bragg (m. Norfolk, Va., 2 June 1812); to their daughter Henrietta Frances Cuthbert (1813-1889) who married Dr. Francis Taliaferro Stribling (1810-1874) of Staunton, Va., in 1832; to their daughter Ella Matilda Stribling (1833-1835) who married Hugh Lee Powell of Staunton in 1867; to their children Lucy Lee Powell (b. 1868), Louise M. Powell (b. 1871), and Francis Taliaferro Stribling Powell (b. 1874) who married Grace E.?; the chairs were bequeathed to Colonial Williamsburg by Francis T.S. Powell with a life right for his wife, Grace Powell, in a document executed in 1954. Mrs. Powell, a widow, gave the chairs to CWF in 1956.

Francis T.S. Powell and his sisters remembered that the chairs belonged to their grandparents, Frances Taliaferro Stribling and Henrietta Cuthbert Stribling of Staunton. Prior ownership by Henrietta's parents, James and Frances Cuthbert of Norfolk, is now surmised from the date of the chairs. Family tradition also holds that Frances Bragg Cuthbert went to live with her daughter Henrietta Frances Cuthbert Stribling in Staunton after James Cuthbert was lost at sea, probably in the 1830s or '40s. See portraits of Frances and James Cuthbert (acc. 1956-271 and 1956-272) and Henrietta Cuthbert as a child (1941.100.7).