Smoking chair
Date1750-1775
Attributed to
Robert Walker
MediumBlack walnut and beech
DimensionsOH: 34"; OW: 23"; OD: 26"
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number2004-11
DescriptionAPPEARANCE: Corner chair with deep scalloped skirt; front cabriole leg with foliate carved knee, applied scrolled knee brackets (replaced), and ball and claw foot; side and rear legs slightly shaped with modified pad feet; three original castors (front castor replaced); scrolled crest rail attached to flat, curved arms terminating in discs; arms do not meet at back of chair, rather the crest rail is attached to a third element into which the central arm support is tenoned; columnar arm supports; vase shaped splats pierced with quatrefoil knot motif (one splat replaced); slipseat sits on top of rails.Label TextLike most of the chairs attributed to Robert Walker, this corner chair-often termed a smoking chair in the south-has a northern Virginia history. The chair descended in the Fitzhugh-Ficklin family of Belmont Plantation in Falmouth, Virginia just across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg. Like the Spotswood chair (1938-199), this corner chair has a distinctively shaped ball-and-claw foot that relates to earlier baroque-style British chairs. The use of beech as a secondary wood is indicative of Walker's British training as it was not typically used in Virginia furniture.
ProvenanceDescended in the Ficklin family of "Belmont," Falmouth, Virginia.
1750-1780
1770-1780
1800-1815
ca. 1815
1760-1780
Ca. 1730
1780-1800
1760-1775
1750-1770
ca. 1725
1750-1770