Connoisseur and Collector: A Chicago Residence

Provenance: This sofa is probably one of four originally supplied to the Senate Chamber of the United States Capitol during the period from 1814 to 1827 when the building was restored. The War of 1812 left the Capitol nearly in ruins; after British troops set fire to the building in 1814, it was saved from complete destruction only by a sudden rain storm. An issue of The Magazine Antiques dated October 1931 accompanies this lot, and in addition to illustrating the sofa, suggests that the quartet of sofas were cast out during a later refurbishment of the Senate Chamber. The present sofa may have migrated to the Sun Tavern, in Alexandria, Virginia; after the shuttering of that establishment, its furniture was sold to various Washington newlyweds, one of whom purchased the sofa for her home. A notarized statement signed by Mary A. Zeh and dated September 21st, 1938 also accompanies this lot. It states: This is to say that the article about the historical sofa shown on page 208 Antiques Magazine for October 1931 is true. I was the bride mentioned. I purchased enough of the furniture (piled high in corners of the rooms) to furnish my Colonial home in Washington, D.C. The identity of the sofa was given me many years later by Dr. Geo. Kober, who was the youngest of a large family. The father in law of his oldest brother was a repair man at the Capitol, and the sofas in the rest room of the Senate Chamber was much discussed. Dr. Kober remembered when he saw my sofa that it was one of the four.