Great Britain, 1750-1760
Mahogany with beech
Long-term loan from William Bradshaw Beverley
Catalog no. 12
This fully upholstered side chair, or back stool, has a history of ownership by the wealthy planter Robert Beverley of Blandfield plantation in Essex County, Virginia. It was part of a suite that included at least a half-dozen chairs and two small matching four-legged stools. This furniture, with acanthus-carved knees, ball-and-claw feet, cabriole legs on all sides, and crimson wool upholstery, gave Blandfield an air of elegance and affluence, certainly one of Beverley's goals. Upholstery was very costly in the eighteenth century, so the presence of eight fully upholstered pieces in one room must have seemed lavish, even by Virginia gentry standards.