The Patrick Henry Chair

Product Description

The hand-written letter thumb-tacked to the underside of the seat claims that this chair was once in a home owned by Patrick Henry. Yes, that Patrick Henry of “Give me liberty or give me Death!”

The letter, shown in the images, provides no more substantiation than somebody said that somebody said.

Hardly conclusive – but still interesting.

The chair just might be 18^th Century.

The joinery is floating tenon and hide glue, at least the ones I examined. There is no maker’s mark. The wood is beech, elm, or ash; all trees common on the East Coast during the Colonial Period.

My job (pleasure) was to re-create the missing right arm.

I chose ash for the replacement arm, and put a dark walnut stain to it to bring it close to the patina of the extant wood. Close, but not perfect.

But what is?