Images(2)

Smoking Chair

Date1760-1780

OriginAmerica, North Carolina or Virginia

MediumBlack walnut and yellow pine

DimensionsOH: 33 1/4"; OW: 29 1/2"; OD: 26 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2001-21,A

DescriptionAppearance: A smoking or corner chair supported on one cabriole leg with crosshatched knee carving and brackets at the front and three turned bulbous legs at either side and the back below a deep seat rail, which supports a conforming (replaced) slip seat and frame (replaced) for the pot, all below columnar stiles that frame a pierced splat on each side and that supportas a semi-circular arm rail with rounded handholds and a carved crest rail.

Construction: Front, back and side seat rails are tenoned and double through-pegged to the legs. The front leg, with pad foot, is flanked with two knee blocks glued to the face of the rails. The other three legs are squared where they join the seat rails, turned below the rails to form legs, turned above the rails as corner stiles and round tenoned into the semi-circular arm rail. The arm rail terminates at each end with rounded handholds. The carved backrest is screwed to the arm rail from the underside of the arm rail; only one screw is now visible. Two 3/16” iron plates have been added to reinforce the arm rail and are screwed to the underside of the arm rail at stress points where it was failing.

Pierced splats are tenoned into the underside of the arm rail and into shoes that are glued and face nailed to the upper side of the two rear rails. Those two rails have been supplemented with 5/8” x ¾” boards nailed to the upper inside surface of the rails directly under the shoes and flush with their inside edge to provide support under the full width of the shoes.

Seat supports (modern replacements) are nailed to the inside surface of the seat rails 1” below the upper edge of the rails.

The chair seat frame rails (original) are joined with very unusual shouldered through tenons that have been exposed by heavy chamfering on the outer edge on the upper surface of all four rails. The two rails forming the front edges of the seat are rabbeted 7/8”on the underside and each has a peg to secure it to the underlying surface of the now missing commode seat.

The chair is entirely made of black walnut with the exception of the supplemental boards under the shoes and the chair seat frame, both of which are yellow pine.
Label TextChairs of this form were known by various names in colonial America. “Corner chair” and “roundabouts” were two popular names. In Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and sometimes Britain they were often called “smoking chairs”. Lord Botetourt’s 1770 inventory for the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg listed four smoking chairs, two in the parlor and two in the dining room. Other 18th century inventories located the form in bedchambers and halls. These chairs were often employed for writing, reading, and related activities. Some with deep, concealing skirts were fitted with supports for chamber pots.
ProvenancePurchased by the seller at a group shop in western North Carolina.