Side chair, splat back

Date1770-1775

Attributed to Thomas Miller

MediumCherry chair frame, including blocks (by microanalysis); oak slip-seat frame.

DimensionsOH. 38; OW 21; SD 18.

Credit LineGift of William Byron Bailey in memory of Dorothy Tazewell King Bailey

Object number1965-184

DescriptionAppearance: Side chair with trapezoidal seat molded along front and side top corners, straight legs square in cross section with chamfered inner corners and molded front corners, rear legs flare back at base, "H" form stretchers and slightly higher rear stretcher, rounded crest rail with flaring, rounded "ears", crest rail carved in center with anthemion and pendant husk (descending onto splat) and "C" scrolls around ears and outlining shape of rail, stiles molded, splat tapers in width towards middle of back and flares out slightly at base, splat pierced with small "V" in top center of splat around pendant husk and four vertical, arched lozenges that echo outer shape of splat, four lobed bow-knot carved into center of splat, molded shoe integral with rear rail and arched slightly on underside, separate slipseat.

Construction: The chair is joined in the usual manner. Its side seat rails are inset from the legs approximately 1/16". The seat-rail joints were originally pinned; one pin survives and the others have been replaced. The stretchers were originally secured with smaller, 1/8" pins. The same pinning pattern appears on other chairs in the group. The rear seat rail is undercut along the lower edge. Triangular, vertically grained, cherry corner blocks are used at the back of the chair, while two-piece, vertically laminated cherry blocks appear at the front.
InscribedNone.
Markings"III" is chiseled into the inside of the rear seat rail and "IV" is cut into the slip-seat frame.
ProvenanceThe chair descended in the Waller family of Fredericksburg and Williamsburg, Virginia. It was probably made for John Waller (1753-1813/1814) and Judith Page of Hanover County at the time of their marriage in 1774. Although John Waller had grown up in Williamsburg, he relocated to Fredericksburg (hometown of his father, Benjamin Waller) in 1774 and served as clerk of the Spotsylvania County court until about 1790. Family tradition states that the chair descended to the Wallers' son, John Walker Waller (1779-1813); to Littleton Tazewell Waller (1801-1870); to Mary Eliza Waller (Mrs. Thomas Bowlby Rowland, 1830-1915); to Margaret Willoughby Rowland (Mrs. Frank Tubman King, 1859-1938); to Dorothy Tazewell King (Mrs. William Byron Bailey, 1904-1965); to her widowed husband, the donor.

Five other chairs from the same suite survive with histories in the Waller family. They include an armchair (CWF acc. L1987-8) and four side chairs in the collection of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.