Side chair, shield-shaped slat-back

Date1790-1815

MediumMahogany and yellow pine

DimensionsOH(back): 36 1/2"; OH(seat): 17"; OW(seat front): 20 1/4"; OD: 17"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1967-71,3

DescriptionSide chair, shield-shaped back with serpentine crest and reverse serpentine shape to bottom of shield; three vertical and slightly out curving inverted baluster shaped banisters at center; shield supported by incurving section of stiles; incised scratch-bead around edges of all elements of back; trapezoidal seat with molded top edge of rails; straight tapered legs with molded front corners and chamfered inner corner; rear legs kick towards back; rectangular side, medial, and rear stretchers.

Woods: Primary: Mahogany. Secondary: yellow pine rear seat rails, slip seat.ProvenanceVendor to Colonial Williamsburg states chairs 1967-71,1-3 were owned in 1925 by Miss Mary C. Pefferman who purchased them from a Washington D. C. resident who stated they had been made on her father's Virginia plantation. The chairs are too sophisticated for plantation manufacture, but the history can be construed to indicate the chairs were owned in Virginia. As a simple version of a Maryland type, it is also possibly that they were made in Virginia.