Side Chair

Date1790-1810

MediumMahogany, tulip poplar, and yellow pine.

DimensionsOverall: 16 1/8 x 37 3/4 x 19 1/2in. (41 x 95.9 x 49.5cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1930-238,6

DescriptionAppearance: One of eight side chairs; shield back with molded front edges; side members of shield continue down to seat from stiles and are also molded on front; back composed of three shaped vertical members; center member pierced and fan-shaped at top with three carved pendant husks and a single pierced teardrop below; side members each with acanthus leaf carving at top with pair of piercings similar to those on center splat below; broad seat with curved side rails and serpentine front upholstered over seat rails; tapering front legs, square in section and molded on outside faces; rear legs square in section, tapering slightly and flaring to rear; braced by rectangular side, rear and medial stretchers.

Construction: The lower half of the rear seat rail is veneered in mahogany, leaving an unveneered upper surface for tacking the upholstery. The rear rail has always been without a shoe. The upholstery was originally trimmed with a double row of brass nails. Open corner braces reinforce the joints between the front and side seat rails, but not those at the rear. The medial stretcher is tenoned into the side stretchers.

Materials: Mahogany crest rail, splat, splat rail, stiles, front legs, stretchers, and rear seat rail veneer; tulip poplar seat rails; yellow pine corner braces.
Label TextEven the simplest Baltimore furniture like this shield-back side chair sometimes carries design elements peculiar to Maryland. According to furniture historian Gregory Weidman, there is no exact English prototype for the splat configuration seen here--a grouping of three narrow ribs with out-curving sides, terminal leaf carvings, and teardrop-shaped piercings. No other American interpretations of the pattern are known.

Shield-back chairs of this general form were quite popular in Baltimore and have survived in large numbers. The decorative details vary widely from one example to the next. Such chairs were available with carved, inlaid, or plain central splat ribs; straight, bowed, or saddled seat rails; and flat, carved, inlaid, or molded front legs. The presence of carved husks or bellflowers on the splat of this particular chair indicates that it was more costly than similar plain chairs and was intended for use in a parlor, dining room, or other entertaining space. From an extant set of eight, the chair was originally owned by Philip and Mary Tabb of Toddsbury, a plantation on the North River in Gloucester County, Virginia. Philip Tabb inherited the Toddsbury property in 1782. About ten years later, he undertook an extensive remodeling of the existing house. The purchase of these chairs was probably associated with the resulting redecoration.

As rural residents of Tidewater Virginia in the post-colonial period, the Tabbs were not unusual in their ownership of Baltimore furniture. By 1800, Baltimore was the northern Chesapeake's preeminent commercial and maritime center and was becoming an important source of manufactured goods for Virginians in rural areas along the lower Potomac, Rappahannock, and York Rivers and on the Eastern Shore. However, Baltimore was not a major furniture supplier for upriver counties near fall-line cities such as Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Petersburg, nor did it serve as such for residents of Norfolk's hinterland. The patterns of ownership suggest that during the early national period, eastern Virginians continued to rely on furniture makers in nearby urban centers, while residents of the extensive rural districts adjacent to the Chesapeake Bay increasingly looked to Baltimore.

InscribedNone.
MarkingsNone.
ProvenanceThis chair and the rest of its set were originally owned by Philip and Mary Mason Wythe Tabb at Toddsbury plantation, Gloucester Co., Va. The pieces remained there until 1856 when the house and adjacent lands were sold and the chairs were moved to Newstead, a new Tabb house on another portion of the same estate. CWF acquired the chairs from Margaret Arthur Tabb of Newstead in 1929.