Chair's green paint was striped in 1976. Unknown if paint was original.
Object ID
W.1974.028.001
Notes
Original accession number W.35.28, would lead one to believe the James Buchanan Foundation obtained the chair in 1935; however, teh file holds letters written by the donor, Mr. Russel, that are dated 1974. The Accession Record is, therefore, inaccurate.
Research required to authenticate object connection with Elizabeth Speer Buchanan. The donor's 14 May 1974 letter states that the chair "came from the home of James Buchanan. When his Mother died at Cove Gap, PA." It should be noted that primary sources indicate that Elizabeth Speer Buchanan died on 14 May 1833 at 9:00 AM at the home of her daughter in Greensburg, PA.
Empire mahogany side chair with a wide curved tablet top back splat and a horizontal foliate carved center splat. The upholstered seat is supported by sloping rounded side rails. At the apron corners are carved florets above the urn-shaped turnings and reeded front legs terminating with bun feet. The back legs are square saber styles.
Arm chair with upholstered seat and seat back in yellow chintz with orange peony and tiger lily flowers. Wooden frame and arms. Seat back is squarish with craved top with symetrical scrolls and feather design. Arms scroll to front with a 4-petal flower
Arm chair with upholstered seat and seat back in yellow chintz with orange peoney and tiger lilly flowers. Wooden frame and arms. Seat back is squarish with craved top with symetrical scrolls and feather design. Arms scroll to front with a 4-petel flower
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.
Empire mahogany side chair with a wide curved tablet top back splat and a horizontal foliate carved center splat. The upholstered seat is supported by sloping rounded side rails. At the apron corners are carved florets above the urn-shaped turnings and reeded front legs terminating with bun feet. The back legs are square saber styles.
Empire mahogany side chair with a wide curved tablet top back splat and a horizontal foliate carved center splat. The upholstered seat is supported by sloping rounded side rails. At the apron corners are carved florets above the urn-shaped turnings and reeded front legs terminating with bun feet. The back legs are square saber styles.
Empire mahogany side chair with a wide curved tablet top back splat and a horizontal foliate carved center splat. The upholstered seat is supported by sloping rounded side rails. At the apron corners are carved florets above the urn-shaped turnings and reeded front legs terminating with bun feet. The back legs are square saber styles.
Sheraton/Empire Tabernacle style mirror. Gilt mirror with a flat molded cornice with projecting breaks at the corners and fourteen pendent sphere. Double pilasters have decorative captials, beaded reeds and a rope motif terminating with urn-shaped bases. Frieze has foliate carvings.
Bottom mirror's silvering is delaminating from exposure to moisture; some chipping on the gilt frame.
Object ID
W.1935.042.001
Notes
Mr. Robert K. Cassatt's (donor) aunt was Miss Annie Buchanan. Annie was Robert's mother's sister and niece to James Buchanan. This mirror formerly hung at Wheatland.
Oval top empire-style table with side skirt. Skirt has beaded top and bottom. Table divides to accomodate four leaves. Four-sided reeded central pillar with two turned feet underneath and four c-scrolled supports. Solid base with four radial, long legs w
Undocumented stories claim that this table was ordered by William Jenkins in 1828, the year he had the Wheatland mansion built, and that it has conveyed to each subsequent owner with the deed. The table dates from the first quarter of the nineteenth century and might attributed to the Bachman cabinetmakers.
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.
Hepplewhite Pembrook Oval Table. Two drop leaves, when opened, are supported by pivoted shaped brackets. End skirts are straight with one containing a full-width drawer. The four slender tapering legs have satinwood inlay at the upper end.
Fixed leaf top table with serpentine drop leaves at each sides. Beaded molding on both skirts with drawer on one side. Brass molded handle plate with dogwood blossom decoration, bail handle. Legs are reeded with bun foot.
School Masters Desk. Turned legs, slantied hinged desk top, panel in center of interior, three drawers, three open pigeon holes, pigeon holes are topped by two small drawers on either side.
James Buchanan was the second owner of this desk; he gifted the desk to a domestic servant (name unknown) who was the third of eight owners not counting the museum.
