Sofa

This sofa and a virtually identical privately owned example from the same shop are the earliest Virginia-made sofas known. Dating from the last decade of the eighteenth century, they belong to a small but sophisticated group of furniture that is united by shared structural and decorative techniques, most notably the consistent presence of highly unconventional husk or bellflower inlays. Made of maple, these ornaments differ from the majority of American inlaid bellflowers in that they are inverted and consequently resemble fleurs-de-lis. The maker used the design often, varying only the unshaded abstract lines and scrolls he used to decorate their surfaces. The simplicity of the execution and the inventiveness of the ornament strongly suggest that these inlays were not manufactured by a professional inlay maker but were produced in the cabinet shop where the furniture was made.
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