Images(2)

Armchair

Date1770-1775

Attributed to Thomas Miller

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Fredericksburg

MediumCherry chair frame, including blocks; oak slip seat frame.

DimensionsOH: 38 1/4"; OW: 26 1/2"; OD: 18 1/2"

Credit LineGift of Elizabeth and George Koszalka

Object number2020-17,A

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 flair 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, shaped arms with scrolled arm terminals carved with volutes on sides and chains of bellflowers down center, tops of terminals, shaped and molded arm supports, 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. The stretchers were originally secured with smaller, 1/8" pins. The same pinning pattern appears on the other chairs in the original set. The rear seat rail is undercut on 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.
Label TextJohn Waller, clerk of the Spotsylvania County court from 1774 to 1786, probably purchased this chair in neighboring Fredericksburg around the time of his marriage in 1774. Five side chairs from the same suite descended in the Waller family.

The ribbon, anthemion (stylized floral motif), and bellflowers carved on the splat, crest rail, and arms of this chair relate to virtually identical motifs in the architectural woodwork and plasterwork at Kenmore, the Fredericksburg home Fielding and Betty Lewis built in 1775. It is likely that the maker of the chair also carved the woodwork and the molds for the plaster ornament used at Kenmore. Thomas Miller, a Fredericksburg cabinetmaker and carver who produced an ornate armchair with related carving for the local Masonic lodge in 1764, may also have completed both of these commissions.
InscribedNone.
ProvenanceFamily tradition states that this chair descended in the Waller family of Fredericksburg and Williamsburg, Virginia. Research suggests that it was made for John Waller (b. 1753) 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, where he became clerk of the Spotsylvania County Court.

Known line of descent: Eliza Anne Waller Vest (1809-1870) of the Vest (now Palmer) House, Williamsburg, VA to daughter Eliza Waller Vest Joynes (1834-1914) of Williamsburg and Columbia, SC, to daughter Eliza Littleton Joynes Macfarlan (1864-1955) to daughter Kate Macfarlan (1900-1970), to sister Julia Macfarlan Lehr (1902-1981), to brother Walker Joynes Macfarlan (1906-1993) to donor. Eliza Anne Waller Vest was the granddaughter of John and Judith Page Waller, the presumed original owners of the set of chairs. She was also the sister of Littleton Tazewell Waller (1801-1870) in whose family side chair #1965-184 descended.

Four other chairs from the same original set survive. Miss Gabriella Page, a direct Waller descendant (through John and Judith Page Waller's son Benjamin Waller), bequeathed them to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (now Preservation Virginia) in the 1930s. Two of those chairs are now in the collection of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.

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