Charleston Loan Exhibition

58 Side chair (one of a pair) Charleston, SC, 1745/1755 Mahogany H. 38 x W. 24¾ x D. 23¼ inches Lent by Middleton Place Foundation, Charleston, SC Middleton Place’s pair of Charleston mahogany side chairs is part of a set of at least five matching chairs owned by Daniel Huger (1742–1799) and his family of Limerick Plantation and Charleston. The slender, splayed rear cabriole legs on this chair and its mate are rare features of colonial side chairs attributed to Charleston shops. In fact, there are only three other Charleston-made side chairs with rear cabriole legs known to survive. The high-style carving is evidence that the cabinetmaker or his clients, the Hugers, were well aware of design trends across the Atlantic. In fact the carving on these chairs is quite similar to the carving on some chairs made by Tillerand which were recently illustrated in catalog for the Chatsworth Attic Sale in October 2010. These chairs were identified as combining British and French Rococo design elements. Although the style of these chairs is frequently referred to as Chippendale after the promi- nent English cabinetmaker, the Hugers and their cabinetmaker would not have been influenced by Chippendale as the chairs predate his famous work published in 1754. Daniel Huger (1742–1799) of Limerick Plantation and Charleston was the same age as Arthur Middleton and like Arthur was sent to Europe for his education. Both men were not only members of the planter class and patriots during the American Revolution but friends. In 1800, shortly after Daniel’s death, his son U. S. Senator Daniel Elliot Huger married Arthur Middleton’s daughter Isa- bella Johannes in 1800 shortly after his father’s death, and the chairs descended in the family. MES