Chest of Drawers
Norfolk, Virginia, 1790-1805
Mahogany with tulip poplar, oak, sweet gum, white pine, yellow pine, red pine, red cedar, satinwood, maple, and ivory
Catalog no. 114
This Norfolk chest of drawers exhibits many of the sophisticated structural details encountered on the best contemporary British furniture. These include dustboards that extend the whole depth of the case, a fully paneled back, and horizontally grained blocking behind the splayed French feet. The ample size of the piece, unusual by American standards, also reflects a common British approach. Six other equally large Norfolk chests that represent the work of at least two shops are known. All share the same sophisticated and time-consuming structural details noted here. The external ornamentation on each is restrained and almost severely neat and plain. The chests probably were made by British artisans, several of whom immigrated to Norfolk in the 1790s.
Breakfast Table
Attributed to Alexandria, District of Columbia (now Virginia), 1790-1800
Mahogany with yellow pine, tulip poplar, maple, and boxwood
Catalog no. 69
The residual influence of British furniture design in the post-Revolutionary South is again demonstrated by this Potomac valley breakfast table. The color-contrasted cross banding of the rectangular top and the use of large classical inlays, ornate brasses, and delicate castors give the object a strongly British appearance. Other furniture attributed to Alexandria, a northern Virginia seaport that was briefly ceded to the District of Columbia during the early national period, reflects the same unmistakable British flavor.
Armchair
Alexandria, District of Columbia (now Virginia), 1790-1810; altered ca. 1825
Mahogany with oak and tulip poplar
Partial gift of Kelly C. Schrimsher
Catalog no. 33
The back design of this chair was popular in New England and the Chesapeake. Artisans in both regions were clearly inspired by a plate in George Hepplewhite, Cabinet-Maker & Upholsterer's Guide (1794). That artisans working in post-Revolutionary America often relied on British design sources underscores the deep cultural ties that continued to exist between Britain and the United States.
This chair underwent an in-use alteration early in its history. The piece began as a side chair but was converted to armchair form about 1825. In the process, the front legs were replaced in order to provide the pedestal bases upon which the arms rest in typical early Empire fashion. Museum curators once considered altered antiques to be damaged goods. Today, early in-use changes are recognized as valuable evidence of changing needs in historic settings.
Basin Stand
Ezra Stith
Petersburg, Virginia, 1811-1820
Catalog no. 180
Post-Revolutionary southern artisans continued to rely on published British designs long after independence had been secured. This Virginia basin stand, embellished with nine rectangular panels of string inlay, appears to reflect the merging of two “Corner Bason Stands” from Thomas Sheraton, Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing-Book (1802).
The stand was made by “Ezra Stith / Petersburg / Virginia.” He worked in that important fall-line town in the second decade of the nineteenth century. Supported by square, untapered legs, Stith's stand is another example of the ongoing popularity of the neat and plain style in the early national Chesapeake.
British Influences after the Revolution
British design and construction standards that dominated the cabinet trade in the colonial Chesapeake declined greatly after the Revolutionary War. Even so, lingering British influence can be discerned in some neoclassical Chesapeake furniture. Due in part to the region's deep cultural roots, this preference was reenforced by the continued in-migration of British cabinetmakers after the war.
