Chester Sully
Norfolk, Virginia, 1811
Mahogany with ash, yellow pine, and tulip poplar
Catalog no. 41
This sofa, made in 1811, is the earliest documented Virginia-made example known. It is labeled by “CHESTER SULLY, Cabinet-Maker, Upholsterer and Undertaker . . . Main Street, Norfolk.” The elder brother of the artist Thomas Sully, Chester ran a succession of cabinetmaking concerns in Norfolk and satellite operations in other North Carolina and Virginia towns. He left Virginia in 1819 to become a timber merchant in the Florida territory. Although the black horsehair is a later replacement, much of the under upholstery on the arms, seat, and back survives intact.