Fauteuil en Cabriolet

From Thomas Jefferson Wiki

Artist/Maker: Unknown
Created: ca. 1785
Origin/Purchase: Paris
Object Type: Furniture and Lighting
Materials: Painted Beech
Dimensions: 33 x 22 1/4 x 18 1/2 in.
Location: Dining Room

This French armchair, with a slightly curving oval back, was the last chair in which Jefferson sat before he died. Immediately after his death on July 4, 1826, his grandson-in-law, Nicholas P. Trist, carved Jefferson's initials in the inside of the chair's left arm.

This unsigned chair, with fluted legs, is a very popular form of the Louis XVI period. It may have been part of the set of blue fauteuils used in the petit salon of Jefferson's Paris residence, the Hôtel de Langeac.