Winchester, Virginia, 1790-1805
Black walnut with yellow pine and maple
Catalog no. 40
This sofa and a virtually identical example from the same shop are the earliest Virginia-made examples of the form known. Produced in Winchester, they are part of a small but refined group of furniture characterized by exuberant shaping and the use of unusual inverted bellflower inlays. Despite the maker's unmistakable grounding in Winchester design traditions, the form of the back and arms strongly suggests his awareness of contemporary forms made in Baltimore, Annapolis, or Philadelphia.