ReStore Presidential is the name I’m giving to the unusual item starring in today’s blog. The light blue material was found in a white box in ReStore’s Reston/Herndon store. I almost passed it by as I was heading out the front door. However, curiosity got the better of me and I stopped to check it out.
At first glance, there are a few rather ornate pieces of light blue material with a yellow leaf and circulator pattern on them. But on closer inspection you’ll noticed the material is from a chair seat. It was removed from a chair probably during re-upholstering. The seat covers look very well made and I don’t notice any rips or stains in the material. The covers are in a white box marked, “Material from White House for Cushion of Chair”.
What does material from the White House mean? Of course, Farmhouse Magic Blog is now very interested. I want to see if this is a real piece with some presidential history to it or something else.
Armchair with Enclosed and Upholstered Sides by Pierre-Antoine Bellange, Blue Room, Nixon Administration (?)
So, when I got back home, the first thing I did was to check online for any White House furniture photos. Sure, there were plenty of furniture photos online. After scrolling down for a while, I found a photograph of First Lady Pat Nixon with similar looking chairs seats. However, it was too far away to see any close details on the chair seats. But they were about the same shade of blue in the photograph.
Then I looked up the White House Museum site and sure enough these chair seat covers look like one of the White House chair patterns. Today, although the pattern is the same on the seat cushions, they are now a dark blue color instead of this light blue. (See online Armchair with Enclosed and Upholstered Sides by Pierre-Antoine Bellange, Blue Room, Nixon Administration).
President Monroe’s French Furniture in ReStore Presidential
According to online records, the oldest pieces of furniture in the White House collection are pieces from the French cabinet-maker Pierre-Antonine Bellange. These pieces were ordered by President James Monroe after the White House Fire of 1814.
This set consisted of 53 pieces including one table, two sofas, eighteen fauteuils (open armchairs) two bergères (enclosed armchairs), 18 side chairs, stools and two screens. The original upholstery was red silk with laurel leaves and eagles in gold. In 1837 the “elliptical saloon” became the Blue Room. The Blue Room is located in the center of the White House.
Unfortunately, over the years much of the original furniture was sold as a way to pay for new White House furniture. Some of the pieces were reacquired during the Kennedy push to collect original White House furniture. It looks like ten Bellange pieces were recovered and now share the room with reproductions.
Ending Notes in ReStore Presidential
So, what did I learn about this box of removed chair seat covers?
Of course, there is no “official paperwork” stating the seat covers were removed from the White House chairs. But thinking about things, the White House is only about 25-26 miles from the Reston-Herndon area. Is this a possibility?
I am, also, not able to get a closer look at the White House chairs in the Blue Room to compare things. So, I’m only going by what looks similar to the pattern in the ReStore Shop.
In conclusion, I am saying you are to form your own opinion of the material of the chair seat cushion. This is a topic that you could do lots and lots of research on. But as things go, with our short blog postings, there is only so much we can cover.
Of course, as a disclaimer, I am in no way any expert in the recovering of historical chairs with new fabric. Or of the chairs used in the White House’s Blue Room. Or of the history of the furniture used in the White House, etc. But, I hope, you found today’s blog as interesting as I did.
A big Thank You to the ReStore Shop in the Reston/Herndon area for allowing me to photograph items in their store and the blog about them. You never know what will come into the shop.
Resource Sites: Online: www.tysto.com, (The White House Museum), whitehousehistory.org, www.google.com and Bellange