Washington Winter Show 2025

48 48 Parlor, the style and the color of upholstery were unknown to modern curators until the discovery and acquisition of a Fairfax ledger book in 2013. Listing eight “Mah[ogon]y Marlboroug[h] Stuff back chairs” covered with a silk and worsted wool damask dyed “Saxon blue,” and “1 Large Sopha to match,” the ledger provided a level of detail that enabled Mount Vernon’s curators to research and commission replicas based on comparable period examples. Master furniture conservator Leroy Graves of Williamsburg made the sofa and backstools. Kate Smith of Eaton Hill Weavers of Marshfield, Vermont, used eighteenth-century dye recipes to perfect the Saxon blue color. Humphries Silk Weaving of Suffolk, England wove the silk and worsted wool damask using a period pattern. Situated in the now fully restored Front Parlor, these replica antiques convey to Mount Vernon’s visitors a clear and accurate idea of the room as George Washington knew it. A selection of items fromTudor Place demonstrates how a family identified and documented its heirlooms as they were passed down through the generations. A Sèvres teacup and saucer from a service originally owned by George Washington bears a handwritten paper label by Armistead Peter, Jr. (Tudor Place’s third owner) that reads: “This cup and saucer of white and gold set that came from ‘Mt. Vernon,’ fromGrandmother to Armistead, November 30th 1894. Tudor Place.” A brass chamberstick, ca. 1820–40, that belonged to his grandmother, BritanniaWellington Peter Kennon (daughter of Thomas andMartha Peter who built Tudor Place), is similarly annotated by Armistead Peter, Jr. A gold and enamel jarretière bracelet from M. W. Galt, Brothers &Company of Washington, D.C., is accompanied by a note by Agnes Peter, sister of Armistead Peter, Jr., identifying it as one of a pair of bracelets given by their father, Dr. Armistead Peter, to their mother, Martha “Markie” Kennon Peter, as a Christmas gift in 1874. In a note dated January 7, 1942, Agnes also identified a silver pocket watch and chain as having originally belonged to her uncle, James Freeland Peter. Sometimes the history or original purpose of an antique object is not immediately apparent and further investigation is required. A case in point is the finely crafted miniature sideboard on display from theWinterthur collection. Made in the manner of a full-size “sash corner” sideboard, and fitted with six working locks, this exquisite miniature version is one of many examples of miniature furniture collected by Henry Francis du Pont. Research is currently ongoing to investigate these little-studied furniture forms to better understand the impulses that motivated cabinetmakers to produce them. Inlaid with interlocked hearts on the top, the miniature sideboard had special meaning for generations of the Munroe family of Concord, Massachusetts, until financial constraints necessitated its sale in the early 1930s. Cabinetmaker WilliamMunroe made it as a special gift for Elizabeth Miller, whom he married in 1805. Winterthur’s miniature furniture collection will be showcased in the 2026 exhibition Challenging Masterpieces: Artistry and Identity in American Furniture, which will include new information about makers’ multiple intentions for, and public reception of, miniature furniture, as revealed in the historical record. A remarkable gilded military trophy frame from Anderson House offers a lesson in the importance of professional conservation treatment. The frame was created in the late nineteenth century for the display of the original Society of the Cincinnati membership diploma of Lt. Col. Richard Clough Anderson, Larz Anderson’s great grandfather, an officer in the Virgina Continental Line during the Revolutionary War. The most distinctive feature of the frame is its elaborate crest ornamentation featuring flags, cannons, and other instruments of war that flank a circular double-sided watch glass in which Lieutenant Colonel Anderson’s original Society of the Cincinnati Eagle insignia is suspended. (The Society of the Cincinnati Eagle and diploma were designed by Pierre-Charles L’Enfant in 1783.) The crest is topped by a gilded eagle fabricated from stamped brass. Displayed for decades at Anderson House by Larz Anderson and subsequently by the Society of the Cincinnati, the frame had been subject to significant overpainting and re-gilding efforts, while suffering fissures and losses in the ornamentation. In 2015, the Society of the Cincinnati engaged the leading frame conservator and historian William Adair of Gold Leaf Studios to undertake a major conservation treatment, which restored this unique relic of