Expensive Carved Back Stools Used By Elite Colonial Virginians in the Capitol
The Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation has purchased two antique chairs used in the Governor’s Council
Chamber of the Capitol prior to the American Revolution. Properly termed back
stools in the 18th century, the chairs are probably from a set of 12 ordered
from England about 1750.
The council consisted of 12 elite Virginians who met
in the chamber to advise the governor on matters of concern to the entire
colony. Befitting their position in society and government, the counselors were
furnished expensive chairs made of highly carved tropical mahogany, upholstered
in red silk and adorned with polished brass tacks. In addition to mahogany, the
chairs’ construction includes oak, cherry, beech, ash and Scots pine.
The matching armchair for the royal governor has been
in the Colonial Williamsburg collection since 1930.
Fiber evidence discovered on the chair frames suggests
that the original upholstery was of red silk. The same upholstery and tacking
pattern also were used on the royal governor’s armchair along with a silk
fringe. Upholstery evidence on the three chairs, including brass tack
patterns and nailing patterns for the webbing and textiles, indicates that they
were originally upholstered by the same artisan. During conservation, the chair
was upholstered non-intrusively in reproduction red silk velvet with brass
tacks.
This expensive seating form was rarely seen in
Virginia. Only two Virginia families — the Beverleys of Blandfield Plantation
and the Byrds of Westover Plantation — are known to have owned sets of imported
British back stools in the mid-18th century.
Conservation of one of the chairs is complete, and the
chair is on view in the Masterworks Gallery of the DeWitt Wallace Decorative
Arts Museum, 326 W. Francis St., Williamsburg. Admission to the museum is by
Colonial Williamsburg admission ticket, Museums Pass or Good Neighbor Card.
Acquisition of the chairs was made possible by funds
from the Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections and a gift from Robert
Iverson of Hinsdale, Ill., through the TIF Foundation in memory of his late
wife, Michelle A. Iverson.
The Art
Museums of Colonial Williamsburg include the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk
Art Museum and the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. The Abby
Aldrich Rockefeller
Folk Art
Museum is home to the nation’s premier collection
of American folk art, with more than 5,000 folk art objects made during the
18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The DeWitt
Wallace Decorative
Arts Museum
exhibits the best in British and American decorative arts from 1670–1830.
The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg
are located at the intersection of Francis and South Henry Streets in Williamsburg,
Va., and are entered through the Public Hospital of
1773. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. For museum program
information, telephone (757) 220-7724.
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is the not-for-profit educational
and cultural organization that preserves and operates the restored 18th-century
Revolutionary capital of Virginia as a town-sized living history museum,
telling the inspirational stories of our nation’s founding men and
women. Williamsburg is located in Virginia’s Tidewater region, 20 minutes
from Newport News, within an hour’s drive of Richmond and Norfolk, and 150
miles south of Washington, D.C., off Interstate 64. For more information about
Colonial Williamsburg, call 1-800-HISTORY or visit Colonial Williamsburg’s
website at www.history.org.
