Chair 1770 - 1780

This chair was made by James Wyatt in England, sometime in the late 18th century, using mahogany and leather. Wyatt was better known for his architecture, yet he also designed furniture and furnishings. The delicacy of the chair reflects the prevailing taste for neoclassical design. Motifs such as the honeysuckle, the fluted legs and rosette details are all drawn from classical sources. But such refinement was only available to a small section of British society. The mahogany from which the chair is made, for example, was a luxury import, the product of colonial trade and, of course, slave labor. The chair would likely have sat within a grand, expensively decorated interior, acting as a signifier of the owner’s wealth, taste, and social status. By looking at design drawings, trade records, and inventories, we can begin to understand the complex social and economic conditions that made such objects possible.