Andirons

Extensive investigation of four extant chairs from the set, now in private and museum collections, revealed a common layer of paint bridging three French-made chairs with a surviving American copy. One French chair retained the stamp of Jean-Baptiste Lelarge, a well known 18th century Parisian chairmaker. This discovery led Montpelier to acquire a set of ten nearly identical neoclassical side chairs stamped by the same maker with similarly turned, fluted, and tapered legs, carved rosettes, and squared backs. As Dolley requested in 1816, the chairs are upholstered in the same crimson damask used for the Drawing Room window treatments. The chairs are painted common gray based on microscopy analysis of the originals.