Speaker's chair

Dateca. 1735

Attributed to Peter Scott

MediumBlack walnut with tulip poplar and yellow pine

DimensionsOH. 97 1/2; OW. 39 5/16; SD. 26 3/8

Credit LineLong term loan from the Commonwealth of Virginia

Object number1933-504 (L)

DescriptionConstruction: The chair is essentially a box consisting of an internal tulip poplar post-and-rail frame with black walnut paneling and ornaments nailed to the outside and a chair seat and arms attached to the front. The side elements of the inner frame consist of vertical stiles that extend from the floor into the roof assembly, and short horizontal members that are tenoned into the stiles at the top and bottom. These two side units are tied together with mortise-and-tenon-joined horizontal rails: two across the top at front and back, one (now missing) across the middle of the back, and one across the bottom at the back. Nailed to the front edges of the side units are exterior black walnut boards with applied astragal moldings and plinths that form the pilasters on either side of the chair. Raised side panels nailed to the side units fit into rabbets at the front created by the overhang of the pilasters. Corresponding rabbets on the inner faces of the pilasters receive the single board cheeks on the inside of the chair. The interior raised back panel, which is blind-pinned together from the inside, is butt-joined with nails to the rear edges of these cheeks, and a roof board is nailed on at the top. The large cove molding around the interior of the chair back, which appears to be a nineteenth-century alteration, further ties the back to the cheeks. The paneled rear facing of the chair, fabricated during conservation treatment in 1989, is based on surviving physical evidence. The new panel rests in the original rabbets created by the overhang of the back edges of the side panels.

The main cornice molding and frieze around the top are flush-nailed, and the cap molding of the cornice is backed by yellow pine and oak filler strips. The corners of the frieze are mitered. At the top of the chair, panel-sawn roof boards are nailed to the tympanum and cornice. As on the main cornice, the wider molding around the tympana is built up over yellow pine filler strips. The lower edges of the tympana, which are covered with non-original black walnut veneers, rest on the main cornice and are backed by one original black walnut and several modern yellow pine glue blocks.

The seat, arms, and legs are attached to the entire joined and paneled back assembly. The rear seat board extends under the cheeks and is nailed at the rear onto a central rail that ties into the tulip poplar side units and at the rear to a rail that in turn is wrought-nailed to the chair back panel. The arms are tenoned into the pilasters, while the arm supports are similarly joined to the underside of the arms and to the front seat board. The seat board is lobed at the front corners to receive the arm supports. The front seat rail is shaped at the ends and tenoned into the legs, as are the front ends of the side rails. The knee blocks are face-glued to the rails. At the rear, the side seat rails are tenoned into the pilasters and reinforced with interior vertical quarter-round glue blocks that appear to be made of tulip poplar.

Materials: Black walnut panels, stiles, rails, moldings, tympana, seat boards, arms, arm supports, knee blocks, and legs; tulip poplar rear seat corner blocks, interior stiles, and interior rails; yellow pine filler strips behind the cornice and tympanum moldings.

Label TextFew objects better illustrate the profoundly deferential and hierarchical nature of colonial society in the South than ceremonial chairs, forms that literally and figuratively elevated the leaders of governmental, fraternal, and religious organizations above the crowd. That a number of examples survive from eastern Virginia speaks strongly about the colony's emulation of British cultural traditions.

This ceremonial chair, long known as the "Speaker's chair," is of decidedly architectonic form with raised panels, pedimented hood, and classically inspired columnar arm supports. From this seat, the Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses presided over its deliberations in the Capitol in Williamsburg. In concept, the chair is a direct descendant of the canopied thrones used by early European monarchs and the covered chairs of British legislative and judicial leaders. A similar chair was used by the Speaker of the House of Commons during much of the eighteenth century.

The Speaker's chair was placed on an elevated platform at one end of the Hall of the House of Burgesses, while the representatives sat on built-in wooden benches. In like fashion, the 1703 plan for the General Court of Virginia, also located in the Capitol, specified a built-in chair for the royal governor. It was to be raised one step above the magistrates' bench, which was, in turn, set above the rest of the courtroom. The same architectural arrangement was installed in 1767 at the Chowan County Courthouse in Edenton, North Carolina, and is the only known American survival of a once common plan.

The first reference to a chair for the Speaker of the House of Burgesses dates from 1703 when the Virginia legislature ordered "a large Armed Chair for the Speaker to sit in, and cushion stuft with hair Suitable to it." Although the chair shown here fits that description, stylistic evidence indicates that it was made about thirty years later. Its pad feet, central skirt pendant, columnar arm supports, and the methods used to produce it bear close resemblance to elements on other Williamsburg furniture of the 1730s. The chair must have been in use by 1747 since the scorched areas on the underside suggest it was among the furnishings "happily preserved" from the fire that destroyed the first Capitol that year.

As originally constructed, the Speaker's chair had a finished back (now replaced) and was designed to stand away from the wall, a practice reflected in illustrations of similar chairs in British legislative halls. Edmund Randolph noted that the chair was formerly adorned with "a frontispiece commemorative of the relation between the mother country and colony," i.e., the royal arms were in or surmounted the pediment. Similar devices were applied to English chairs, and physical evidence on the hood of this one demonstrates that a large device of unknown form had been mounted in that location. Tradition holds that the original coat of arms was removed and destroyed during the Revolution.

The government of Virginia moved to Richmond in 1780, taking with it official property such as the Speaker's chair for use in the soon-to-be-built statehouse. The chair was still in use positioned on a raised platform fifty years later when it appeared in George Catlin's painting, "The Virginia Convention". As late as 1866, the chair, called the "Speaker's Chair of the Room of Representatives," appeared in Frank Leslie's ILLUSTRATED NEWSPAPER. By the 1890s, however, the chair had been relegated to a corridor in the Capitol where it was displayed as a relic. The Speaker's chair remained in the Capitol until 1933, when it came to CWF on long-term loan from the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Research in 2004-2005 identified for the first time that a Williamsburg-made bureau table in the Mount Vernon collection was the one made by Peter Scott for Daniel Parke Custis in 1754 (see Scott receipt, CWF acc. 1988-405). That discovery led to the positive identification of a number of other case pieces and tables made by Scott, including a Custis family sideboard table at the Smithsonian and a desk and bookcase with a history in the Todd-Gwathmey family. The feet on the Speaker's chair are identical to those on the sideboard table (and other Scott tables), while the arm supports exhibit the same turning sequences as the document drawers on the desk and bookcase. Based on those relationships and on the fact that Scott was the only cabinetmaker present in Williamsburg in the 1730s, it is now believed that the legs, arms, seat, and arm supports of the Speaker's chair were made by Scott. The rest of the chair--essentially carpenter's work--may have been made by a local joiner.
InscribedOn the left paneled side are numerous nineteenth- and twentieth-century inscriptions, the earliest being "A.R." and "T.B. 11 12 68."
MarkingsNone.
ProvenanceOriginally a part of the Capitol furnishings in Williamsburg, the chair was taken to Richmond when the seat of government moved there in 1780. The chair remained at the statehouse in Richmond until 1933 when it was placed on long-term loan to CWF.