Child's side chair

Date1750-1800

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Middle Peninsula

MediumMaple and oak.

DimensionsOH: 26" OW: 16 1/8" SeatD: 12 3/8"

Credit LineGift of The Burlington-Gwathmey Memorial Foundation

Object number1988-439

DescriptionAppearance: Child's chair with turned posts and front legs, four stretchers, two back slats, and woven split oak seat.

Construction: The upper slat is held in place with old, if not original, squared wooden pins that run through the leg posts. Evidence of wear on the half-round/half-tapered seat lists indicates that at one time the chair had a rush seat.

Materials: Maple posts, stretchers, and upper slat; oak seat lists and replaced lower slat.
Label TextThis child's chair, with a history in King William County, Virginia, represents a late-eighteenth-century manifestation of the central Tidewater chair-turning tradition that includes CWF acc. 1988-293. In both structure and design, the chair is closely related to other regional types, including a high chair found in nearby Essex County (MESDA research file 3102) and a rocking armchair that descended in a King and Queen County family (CWF acc. 1993-119). CWF also owns a maple side chair with a more sophisticated and elegantly executed variation on the general finial configuration (1992-24).

Made between 1750 and 1800, these chairs recall earlier turning traditions: the compressed balusters, flattened balls, and bulbous finials represent design elements found on seventeenth-century British and New England chairs. Early Virginians imported chairs from both places. British artisans came to the colony in great numbers, as did a few coastal New Englanders. Salem, Massachusetts, turner John Marsh emigrated to the Rappahannock River basin circa 1690. It is therefore difficult to say with confidence whether this Virginia chair reflects British customs or New England variations on those same traditions.

InscribedNone
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceThe chair descended in the Gwathmey family, who lived at Burlington plantation in King William County, Virginia. It remained at Burlington until it was given to CWF in 1988.