Sofa

Datecirca 1918

Mediumwood, leather upholstery

DimensionsOverall: 30 1/2 × 83 1/2 × 32 1/2 in. (77.5 × 212.1 × 82.6 cm)

Credit LineReynolda Estate

CopyrightPublic Domain

Object number1922.2.154

DescriptionThis William and Mary revival three-cushion couch is upholstered in red leather with turned walnut legs. There are four legs at front and back that are turned with balusters above and small bun feet below blocks. The legs are connected by low stretchers that are turned and blocked. The plain arms and back cant slightly outward and are squared at their tops. The present couch was probably made in the United States, but its maker is currently unidentified. It may have been supplied to Reynolda House through John Wanamaker’s, a Philadelphia retailer. Wanamaker's department store was the first department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the first department stores in the United States. John Wanamaker opened his first Philadelphia clothing store with partner Nathan Brown in 1861. In 1876 they opened the Grand Depot, which they called "a new kind of store." At its zenith in the early 20th century, there were two major Wanamaker department stores, one in Philadelphia and one in New York City at Broadway and Tenth Street. Mr. & Mrs. Reynolds were frequent customers of both stores. Furthermore, the interior designer Edward A. Belmont, who helped the Reynolds’ furnish Reynolda House, was on Wanamaker’s staff.

ProvenanceFrom 1964
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, acquired in 1964. [1]

Notes:
[1] In the early 1960s Charles H. Babcock (1899-1967) gave the house and its contents to the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. The house was then incorporated as a museum and collection (Reynolda House, Inc.) on December 18, 1964 with the signing of the charter at its first board meeting. The museum first opened to the public in September 1965.

Status

On view