Made in Virginia 2015: Owen Suter's Fine Furniture, Richmond

Owen Suter's Fine Furniture

The Patrick Henry Corner Chair is an exact replica of a circa 1765-1785 chair belonging to the fiery Commonwealth orator that now sits in the Governor’s Palace in historic Colonial Williamsburg. Owen Suter III—the sixth generation of his family to produce furniture in Virginia—says the most difficult part of the process, done in partnership with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, was matching the replica exactly to the original chair; Suter discovered that the two armrest supports were in fact of slightly different sizes. Open on two of its four sides, the black walnut chair allows the occupant to face in either of two directions in the leather seat, with an armrest on just one side. This design allowed colonial men to sit without having to remove the swords hanging from their waists—convenient when you need to suddenly leap to your feet and shout, “Give me liberty or give me death!”

$4,215. OwenSuters.com