Easy chair

Date1780-1810

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Richmond or Williamsburg

MediumMahogany, tulip poplar, white pine, white oak, linen, and horsehair

DimensionsOH: 44"; OW: 33 ½"; OD: 32 ¼"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Sara and Fred Hoyt Furniture Fund

Object number2008-75

DescriptionAppearance: Commode easy chair with serpentine crest rail with peaked corners, wings, c-scroll arm supports, straight legs square in cross section, and slip seat.

Construction: Front, back and side rails are mortised into the legs. The front rail is additionally half-lapped into the side rails. The back frame is comprised of the serpentine crest rail and a lower rail both tenoned into the stiles. The stiles are rabbeted into the side rails and nailed to the beveled rear legs to hold the back frame in place. The wing crests are mortised into the front wing supports to form the wing assembly. Wing crests are half-lapped and nailed into the stiles and the front wing supports dadoed into the arms. The front arm supports are a composite of a vertical support laminated to a curved front portion. It is probable that the composite supports are mortised into the side rails. They are glued with a butt joint to the upper portion of the front legs. The tops of the vertical supports form the front face of the arm and are nailed to the arm. Nailed lap joints connect the upper tacking stiles to the crest rail, both tacking stiles to the arms, the lower tacking stiles to the side tacking rails and those in turn to the arm supports. Blocks nailed to the inside of the front and side rails run the full length of the rails and support the commode seat. Two parallel slotted runners are half-lapped and nailed to the bottom of the front and back seat rails to provide a slide for the chamber pot, which is inserted and removed from the rear of the chair. A 13" x 13/16" section of the back rail was removed to facilitate that task. The sides and back have panels rather than webbing. Back panels are nailed to the stiles and possibly the crest and tacking rail. Upper wing panels are nailed to wing crests. Lower wing panels rest on the tacking rails and are held between horse hair and blocks nailed to the tacking rails. The chair retains its original stuffing and top linen, with later linen patches. There is evidence of two campaigns of casters on the legs, but none remain. The slip seat, which may be original, is mortised together and has old (possibly original) webbing and horse hair.
Label TextDespite estate inventory references to Virginia easy chairs, relatively few are extant. This example, which has a long history at Timberneck Farm in Gloucester County, may have been purchased by John Catlett around 1808 when he built the house. Catlett could have obtained the chair in one of the larger Tidewater cities like Richmond or Norfolk, or it may have come from the small but nearby town of Williamsburg. The chair survives with its upholstery foundation intact and may originally have been used with a slipcover rather than a fixed show cloth over the linen foundation. This same treatment has been documented on other commode easy chairs where the ability to clean the cover would have been desired.
ProvenancePurchased from estate sale at Timberneck, Gloucester County. Sold at Motley's Auction, Richmond, VA 9/26/2007. Later purchased by Vernon Creekmore, Richmond, VA and consigned to Lana Hobbs Wolcott, Antique Design Center, Norfolk, VA. Timberneck was acquired from the Page family by John Catlett in 1793; he likely erected the present house and this chair may be from that first period.