Williamsburg, Virginia, ca. 1735
Black walnut with tulip poplar and yellow pine
Catalog no. 51
Among the most outstanding eighteenth-century ceremonial chairs is this Virginia example, long known as the “Speaker's chair.” Decidedly architectonic in form, the chair was used by the Speaker of the House of Burgesses during legislative sessions in the Capitol in Williamsburg.
The chair is a direct descendant of the canopied thrones used by early European monarchs, and the covered chairs of British legislative and judicial leaders. The Speaker sat in the present chair, which was placed on an elevated platform at one end of the Hall of the House of Burgesses, while the representatives sat on built-in wooden benches. Fitted with a finished back, the chair was designed to stand away from the wall, a practice reflected in illustrations of similar chairs in British legislative chambers. Missing is the coat of arms that was placed in the tympanum at the top of the chair.