Campeche Chair

Creole style Louisiana furniture is relatively rare and an area of collecting long neglected in the American Wing. Campeche chairs were much beloved by our early presidents Jefferson and Madison, both of whom purchased them from New Orleans makers for their own plantations in Virginia. (The chairs are named after Campeche Bay, Mexico where the wood that was used to construct them traditionally was believed to be found.) This armchair is among the most vibrant surviving examples and belongs to a small group of similar Campeche chairs that feature the use of marquetry and parquetry inlay in their large demilune crests, and probably are the work of a single, but as yet unknown, New Orleans chairmaker. Trying to cash in on market demand, East Coast makers eventually began to copy this distinctive design. But their chairs are much sleeker and lack the authenticity and appeal of this true Creole style object. The armchair's current aged appearance comes from the many years it was used (both indoors and on the porch) by Emily and Robert de Forest, direct descendants of the armchair's original owner, in their Cold Spring Harbor home on Long Island.