Easy chair

Date1815-1825

MediumBlack walnut, maple, yellow pine, white pine, and tulip poplar.

DimensionsOH. 47"; OW. 30 1/4"; SD. 30 1/2"

Credit LineGift of The Burlington-Gwathmey Memorial Foundation

Object number1988-440

DescriptionAppearance: Neoclassic easy chair with turned front legs and square rear legs, all on casters; upholstered in original linen and always intended for use with a removable case cover.

Construction: Most details of the arm and back construction are concealed by the original upholstery, but it is clear that the stiles and rear legs are of one piece. The seat rails are tenoned into the legs in the usual fashion. Front-to-back boards hold the chamber pot within the seat frame and are supported on thin strips nailed to the inner surfaces of the front and rear seat rails.

Materials: Black walnut front legs; maple stiles/rear legs; yellow pine seat rails; white pine support strips and boards for chamber pot; back, wings, and arms (all concealed by original upholstery) framed in tulip poplar and yellow pine.
Label TextThe same combination of turned rings, coves, and shoulders on the front legs of this chair has been found on a number of chairs, tables, and case pieces originally owned in or near Richmond, Virginia. Among them is a pair of card tables whose labels proclaim that they were "MADE AND WARRANTED By James Rockwood, CABINET & CHAIR-MAKER, . . . Richmond, Virginia" (MESDA researcg file 6156). Rockwood was working in the capital city by 1820 and his shop could have produced this easy chair. It is equally possible that legs of this design were made by a Richmond turner for resale to several of the city's cabinet- and chairmakers. Curtis Rockwood (w. 1819-1824) operated a turning shop in Richmond about the same time that his kinsman James was in business. They were in a brief partnership in 1820.

One of the most instructive components of this particular chair is its original upholstery that illustrates a little-known option available to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century furniture buyers. Instead of nailing an expensive outer textile over the completed stuffing, the upholsterer finished the chair in plain white linen much as Charleston's Thomas Elfe did when he recorded "Coverg. with Osnabrigs an Easy Chair" in 1774. This sort of upholstery was designed to be used with a removable slip cover, or "loose case" in period terminology, that could be washed or replaced when necessary. The cases were normally made of printed cotton or pattern-woven checks or stripes and were often en suite with the bed and window curtains in the room.

While the cabinetmaker or upholsterer might supply the loose case along with the chair, many were made at home. On March 3, 1802, New Englander Ruth Henshaw, then living in Norfolk, Virginia, noted that in the "Afternoon Mrs Harris & I covered the easy chair with Copperplate." On March 11, Miss Henshaw "made cotton fringe for chair," and the next day she "finished the fringe and afternoon trimed [sic] the easy chair." Since loose cases were intended to have a generous, untailored fit, such work was well within the skills of middling and gentry housewives. The CWF chair is shown with a reproduction loose case copied from an early nineteenth-century original in the collection of Historic New England.

The long skirt of the reproduction case largely conceals one of this chair's most practical components, a chamber pot that rests within the seat frame beneath the cushion.6 Many eighteenth- and nineteenth-century easy chairs featured such pots, which provided a genteel alternative to outdoor privies.

InscribedNone.
MarkingsNone.
ProvenanceThe chair descended in the Gwathmey family of Burlington plantation in King William Co., Va. It remained on the estate until the family collection was given to CWF in 1988.