A night commode chair that has a four-slat back crest with a Windsor arrow design at the lower back of the chair. The high back chair has turned legs, which are braced by ring-turned box stretchers. The seat has a hole cut out at its center with a separate wood lid with a wrought-iron handle fixed by two screws. The underside of the seat no longer has rabbets to support its zinc or lead chamberpot.
Windsor-back rocking chair. The comb-shaped crest has gold painted trim and hand-painted floral, fruit and nut designs. The slab seat also has a hand-painted gilt outline. The two front legs have gilded turnings along with the front stretcher. The two back legs are canted into the rockers and are plain and round with a thin round plain stretcher. Dark wood. Six thin back rails.
Shaving stand is comprised of a mahogany veneer; the mirror attached to the top has a veneered bull-nose frame supported by ring and vase-turned stiles set into the top with tenons at a backward cant. The skirt has two half-drawers; however, the brass knob drawer-pulls are missing. The stand is supported by four ring and ball turned feet
Sheraton-inspired mahogany veneer night table with satinwood inlay accents that outline the apron, drawer and keyhole, as well as the legs. The table top has eight sides and surmounts four saber legs that also support a lower inward-curved shelf.
Lovebird mark, albeit is not completely struck, which is two facing birds with the initials LO and VE.
Inscription Type
Hallmark
Object Name
Plate, Food
Material
Pewter
Makers Mark
The plate was not made in London as one mark suggests. The love mark was used over a long period of time, ca. 1750-1840, and by a succession of Philadelphia pewterers.
A pair of silver candelabra that each feature two curved arms extending from under the center capital. Each capital fetures a sconce with cockbead decor. The capitals mounted on the two arms have drip pans that are also decorated with cockbead edges. The center capital surmounts an urn shaped knop with a cockbeaded edge surmounting a tapered column that terminates at the base with a cockbeaded wreath.
Year Range From
1790
Year Range To
1840
Storage Location
Wheatland, Lancaster, PA
Storage Room
Center Attic
Storage Wall
East Wall
Storage Cabinet
Storage Shelves
Storage Shelf
Top Shelf
Object Name
Candelabrum
Material
Silverplate
Height (cm)
49.53
Height (ft)
1.625
Height (in)
19.5
Length (cm)
49.53
Length (ft)
1.625
Length (in)
19.5
Width (cm)
43.18
Width (ft)
1.4166666667
Width (in)
17
Condition
Fair
Condition Date
2024-03-28
Condition Notes
Both missing large areas of silverplating. Center finials are missing for both pieces.
Object ID
W.1956.001.001
Notes
James Buchanan Foundation Board of Trustees approved the use of funds from the Prentiss Fund to purchase the candelabrum from Vardi Antiques in NY, NY 03/27/1956.
Sheraton style mahogany, holly and rosewood knife box. The slanting, hinged and hollow lids feature a metal ring on the front. The lids and the case fronts have a serpentine shape with inlaid wood strips at corners on the front, lid and bottom. Top front of the cases have a keyhole beneath the lid seam. The cases surmount three feet; one centered at the middle front wall and two under the back corners. Interiors have six compartments of varying depths that correspond to the slope of the cases.
Provenance
Mr. Burkhardt [seller]
To James Buchanan Foundation
Year Range From
1780
Year Range To
1800
Storage Location
Wheatland, Lancaster, PA
Storage Room
Southeast Bedchamber
Storage Wall
West Wall
Storage Cabinet
Sideboard
Storage Shelf
Service Top
Object Name
Case, Flatware
Material
mahogany, holly, rosewood
Height (cm)
37.93998
Height (ft)
1.24475
Height (in)
14.937
Width (cm)
22.5425
Width (ft)
0.7395833333
Width (in)
8.875
Depth (cm)
26.9875
Depth (ft)
0.8854166667
Depth (in)
10.625
Dimension Details
55.5.2 15.125 x 8.937 x 10.250
Condition
Fair
Condition Date
2022-02-12
Condition Notes
Lids slightly warped. Lock appears to have been made unusable., Veneer is missing in spots.
Blown glass bottle with flared lip, short narrow neck and an eight panel body. Enamel painted flower decor in green, yellow, red and milk-white. Squiggle decoration. Glass is hand-blown crystal, thin and clear.
Bowfront mahogany veneer chest of drawers in the Hepplewhite style. Four drawers have progressing depths from the top to the bottom, each with overpressed drawer pulls two per drawer. At the top center of each drawer is a brass escutcheon keyhole. The top of the chest and each drawer are decorated with satin wood inlay. Chest is supported at its base by four french feet which feature a slightly outswept bracket foot combined with a valence skirt.
Provenance
Dr. Alexander Speer (James Buchanan maternal cousin)
Commonly known as a lamp stand due to its principle use; its four legs made it safer than the earlier candle stands. This mahogany table top is nearly square and of a plain design. The skirt is three inches deep and contains a single drawer that is almost the full width of the skirt. The extant pull is a reproduction; the original would have been plain with a small brass knob. The table is supported by four tapered legs with a ring turning at the top of each and a raised band six inches above the end of each leg.
This frog doorstop serves as an iconic symbol of James Buchanan's attachment to his favorite spring at his Wheatland farm, and was donated because it was an appropriate piece.
Lignum vitas wood caster with round, bowl-like top, pierced for shaking out pounce. Base is ring-turned tapers smaller to broad top, flat bottom. Small, shallow dotted pattern in two bands near bottom. Lip at top has thin groove. Top screws onto base that would be filled with pounce, which is a fine powder made from powdered cuttlefish bone. Pounce was used both to dry ink and to sprinkle on a rough writing surface to make it smooth enough for writing.
Esther 'Hetty' Parker, James Buchanan's housekeeper, chose this among several other household items that Buchanan noted she was to be allowed to choose after his death. Miss Hetty gave this to the daughter of her neighbor. Miss Steckman donated this to the Wheatland collection in 1938.
A Federal era washstand with a top and lower shelf. Top shelf has a centered opening to support a wash basin with two square pockets at the back corners to store a bar of soap and/or a shaving mug. The wood splash back is three sided and scroll cut with a raised back; the sides slope down to rounded shoulders at the front skirt that has bead trim both top and bottom. The top shelf surmounts four square blocks that transition to double ring and ball turned uprights. The lower shelf is mounted 18.5" below the top shelf with a full width drawer on its skirt with a wooden mushroom-shaped drawer pull in the center and double-bead trim at the bottom. The lower shelf surmounts four square blocks that transition to double ring and ball turned legs that terminate on peg feet.
Renunciations are papers filed in the Orphans' Court by executors of an estate who do not wish to administer that estate. They show the name of the decedent, the decedent's place of residence, the name of the person renouncing administration, the name of the replacement administrator to be appointed, and date. The relationship between the decedent, the executor, and the administrator is usually shown. Arranged chronologically and then alphabetically within each year.
System of Arrangement
Arranged chronologically and then alphabetically within each year.
Renunciations are papers filed in the Orphans' Court by executors of an estate who do not wish to administer that estate. They show the name of the decedent, the decedent's place of residence, the name of the person renouncing administration, the name of the replacement administrator to be appointed, and date. The relationship between the decedent, the executor, and the administrator is usually shown. Arranged chronologically and then alphabetically within each year.
System of Arrangement
Arranged chronologically and then alphabetically within each year.
Renunciations are papers filed in the Orphans' Court by executors of an estate who do not wish to administer that estate. They show the name of the decedent, the decedent's place of residence, the name of the person renouncing administration, the name of the replacement administrator to be appointed, and date. The relationship between the decedent, the executor, and the administrator is usually shown. Arranged chronologically and then alphabetically within each year.
System of Arrangement
Arranged chronologically and then alphabetically within each year.
Renunciations are papers filed in the Orphans' Court by executors of an estate who do not wish to administer that estate. They show the name of the decedent, the decedent's place of residence, the name of the person renouncing administration, the name of the replacement administrator to be appointed, and date. The relationship between the decedent, the executor, and the administrator is usually shown. Arranged chronologically and then alphabetically within each year.
System of Arrangement
Arranged chronologically and then alphabetically within each year.
