Collections Menu
Skip to main content
American, Armchair, circa 1917
Armchair
American, Armchair, circa 1917
DepartmentHistoric House

Armchair

Datecirca 1917
Mediumwalnut with tapestry upholstery
DimensionsOverall: 52 1/2 x 30 3/4 x 26 in. (133.4 x 78.1 x 66 cm)
Credit LineReynolda Estate
CopyrightPublic Domain
Object number1922.2.77
DescriptionThis is a large walnut chair in the Jacobean style with open arms, elaborately turned stretchers, and tapestry upholstery. The top rail of the tall chair back is shaped with high oval arch flanked by two squared ears. The front legs are composed of blocks alternating with spiral turning and ending at the bottom in squashed-bun feet, while the back stiles are plainly squared and lean back slightly from floor to top rail. Spiral turned stretchers are at the sides and in the middle, with a pair connecting the front legs. The back stretcher is squared. The ample curved open arms end in large curled knuckles with carved foliate decoration on top.

The entire back frame is upholstered with a needlepoint tapestry of male and female figures dressed as peasants and flanking a flowering tree. They are surrounded by a variety of polychrome flowers all on a black ground. Large brass tacks attach the tapestry to the back frame. The seat is likewise covered with needlepoint tapestry showing a lion in the center surrounded by polychrome flowers all on a black ground. Tassled gimp surrounds the bottom of the seat and demarcates the bottom of the chair’s back.
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