Come in and Have a Seat!
Come In and Have a Seat: Vernacular Chairs of the Shenandoah Valley is now open in the MSV Changing Exhibition Gallery!
Early Shenandoah Valley woodworkers drew on European craft traditions and new American influences to fashion chairs that are distinctive to the region. We call these chairs “vernacular.” Now, for the first time, an exhibition explores this fascinating topic. Serving as guest curator for this MSV-organized exhibition, noted scholar and collector Jeffrey S. Evans has assembled chairs from nine different private collections. Most of these 43 chairs have never before been on public display. Learn about Shenandoah Valley ladder-back, Windsor, and fancy chairs made in the late 1700s and 1800s and see the visual variety they present. The exhibition includes the most exuberantly decorated early Valley chair that is known to exist. Other highlights include a re-creation of an 1850s chair shop, large “puzzles” that challenge you to construct a chair, and a series of reproduction chairs where you may literally “have a seat” to compare their comfort! Don’t miss this groundbreaking exhibition! On view at the MSV through June 20, 2010, this exhibition has been funded in part by a grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.
Pictured at right: Fancy-tablet-top Side Chair (detail), Winchester, Virginia, ca. 1800-1815. Private collection.
