With a brief, sort-of-break from school, I have time to think about the research and making I’ve done recently, if “recently” can encompass the past two-ish years.

Last May, I made a slipcover or case cover for a Chippendale side chair. I love this chair very much and while I have not (yet) recovered the slip seat in something more appropriate, a case cover seemed appropriate.

I am under no illusion that this chair is Cadwalader quality, but it offers the opportunity for crossover between my upholsterer and Cadwalader obsessions. When John Cadwalader was outfitting his townhouse on Philadelphia’s South Second Street in 1770-1772, he ordered covers in fine Saxon Blue check, with fringe, for his chairs.  

I started by making a muslin to create a pattern; this seemed like a better idea than just using measurements. It’s really a simple design: a top (the seat), front and sides, and a ruffled skirt. I based this on an original at Colonial Williamsburg. The cover attaches at the back with quarter-inch linen tape. I ordered fringe, but not enough, so for now, the cover remains fringe-less. 

Checked or striped linen was a common material for covers, durable and easily washable. Yes, this is where “furniture check” comes from: the large-scale checks used for these and other covers. (Samuel Johnson’s are particularly bold.)

Linen covers protected expensive upholstery (wool or silk damask, for example) from wear and light damage. Covers could be switched seasonally, but they were almost always made “en suite,” that is, in the same color as the wall coverings and/or curtains. The Cadwaladers had a blue room and a yellow room, both of which must have been like walking into a jewel, with shimmering silk damask on the walls, as curtains, and upholstering the furniture.
My cover may be simpler, and my house un-jewel-like, but I love it just the same. (It also fits other chairs, like this one at Historic Lewes.)

A Brief Bibliography:

Baumgarten, Linda. “Protective Covers for Furniture and Its Contents.” American Furniture. Chipstone Foundation, 1993. https://chipstone.org/article.php/376/American-Furniture-1993/Protective-Covers-for-Furniture-and-its-Contents.

Graves, Leroy and Luke Beckerdite. New Insights on John Cadwalader’s Commode Seat Side Chairs. American Furniture. Chipstone Foundation, 2000. https://chipstone.org/article.php/437/American-Furniture-2000/New-Insights-on-John-Cadwalader%E2%80%99s–Commode-Seat-Side-Chairs.

Prendergast, Susan Margaret. “Fabric Furnishings Used in Philadelphia Homes, 1700-1775.” University of Delaware, 1978. http://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/26040.

Swain, Margaret. “Loose Covers, or Cases.” Furniture History 33 (1997): 128–33. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23408074.