Side Chair, 1770
Attributed to Benjamin Randolph
(American, 1721–91)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Mahogany, wool-on-linen embroidery, and silk damask
Lent by the Chipstone Foundation 1990.5

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.