The wealthiest American colonials often filled their homes with extraordinary furnishings, some imported from Europe and others commissioned from the best artisans working in the colonies. In 1770 John Cadwalader and his wife Elizabeth, a wealthy member of the Lloyd family of Maryland, ordered a large suite of furniture for their fashionable Philadelphia townhouse. Included in this ornately carved set were twelve chairs including the example seen here, two card tables, a tea table, an upholstered easy chair and two matching sofas, two desks, and even a harpsichord case. The Cadwaladers paid the remarkable sum of £344 to furnish this one room—more than twice what many Philadelphians paid for their entire houses.
This facsimile of The 1772 Philadelphia Furniture Price Book appears courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photos Gavin Ashworth.