Armchair
Probably Monticello Joinery
Albemarle County, Virginia, 1790-1815
Cherry
Catalog no. 39

The neat and plain design of this chair echoes the decorative restraint that characterized much southern neoclassical furniture. However, the unusual form, square stance, and ascending arms have few American parallels. Instead, they reflect the French-inspired furniture made at Thomas Jefferson's slave-operated joinery at Monticello in the Virginia Piedmont.

A bustling and largely self-sufficient plantation community, the Monticello “family” included Jefferson's enslaved household servants, agricultural field hands, and a number of slave artisans who worked in a row of shops near the main house. Among the facilities was a “Joinery” where most of Monticello's architectural woodwork and some of its interior furnishings were fabricated.

First under the guidance of British and Philadelphia-trained shop masters and later under the leadership of slave artisan John Hemings, Jefferson's joinery produced an innovative group of French-inspired furniture. This chair is based on a set of fauteuils, or armchairs, that Jefferson brought back from France. The illustration on the left shows that the French chairs have squared upholstered backs, ascending arms, and saber legs. Even more closely related is a Monticello joinery-made armchair seen in the illustration on the right.

Click on image to see Phil Zea discuss this Armchair.