WINDSOR – The Historic Hope Foundation has lent a mid-18th century painted and turned arm chair from Warren of Northampton County to an exhibit at Tryon Palace in New Bern. “Uncommon Chairs: Early Turned Seating of North Carolina’s Tar-Roanoke River Region,” is on display through Sept. 10.

This exhibit brings together more than 70 ladder back, or “common” chairs from the Tar-Roanoke River region

of North Carolina, most of them made between 1800-1925. Guest curators Hiram Perkinson and Mark R. Wenger present these beautiful examples of early craftsmanship to illustrate the distinct chair-making traditions found in the counties clustered around the North Carolina-Virginia state line. The curators have grouped the chairs by county of origin or by a shared defining feature.

Once found in households in every economic bracket, common chairs were relegated to working class households over the course of the 19th century. The exhibit highlights how simple things like different wood choices and turning patterns caused these chairs appear in every setting from courtrooms and kitchens, to parlors and porches.

“We were pleased to be asked to lend a chair from our collection of Roanoke River Valley furniture. This is an opportunity to highlight our collection to the wider public,” said Turner Bond Sutton, President of the Historic Hope Foundation.

Uncommon Chairs will be displayed in the Duffy Exhibition Gallery at the North Carolina History Center in downtown New Bern.