IMPORTANT AND VERY RARE LEE FAMILY CHIPPENDALE CARVED MAHOGANY BEDSTEAD, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, CIRCA 1775

The bedstead likely was originally owned by Henry Giles Lee II (1730–1787) of "Leesylvania" in Prince William County, Virginia and Lucy Ludwell Grymes (1734–1792). The bedstead then descended to Richard Bland Lee of “Sully” in Fairfax County, Virginia and Elizabeth Collins (c.1768–1858); to their son, Richard Bland Lee, Jr. (1797-1875) and Julia Anne Marion Prosser (1805-1886), Alexandria, Virginia; to their daughter, Mary Elizabeth Lee (1827-1902) and Dr. Robert Fleming (1816-1871), Washington, DC; to their son Alfred Walton Fleming (1861-1957) and Gay Barnard Fleming (1866-1936), Washington, DC; to their son Richard Bland Lee Fleming (1900-1964), Washington, DC who placed it on loan to Stratford Hall Plantation from 1933 to 1974; Dr. Edward Stitt Fleming (1930-1997), Washington, DC; through marriage, to the current owner in 1995.

Stratford Hall Plantation, Westmoreland County, Virginia.

With its shaped headboard, reeded posts, and four cabriole legs with acanthus-carved knees and claw feet, this bedstead is an extremely rare and sophisticated example of its form from Colonial Philadelphia, where it undoubtedly originated from one of the city’s finest cabinet shops. It has a history of ownership in the Lee family of Virginia until 1995, when a descendant gave it to the current owner. It has never been offered on the marketplace until today.

According to family history, this bedstead was owned by Major-General Henry Lee III (1756-1818), the American patriot, Revolutionary War General and Governor of Virginia, and his second wife, Anne Hill Carter (1773-1829). Known as “Light Horse Harry” for his horsemanship, Major-General Lee commanded a mixed corps of cavalry and infantry knows as 'Lee’s Legion.' In 1794, at the request of President Washington, he commanded militiamen sent to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. He was appointed major general of the U. S. Army in 1798 and recommissioned by President Thomas Jefferson in 1808, when war with Great Britain was imminent. After serving as a delegate to the Congress of the Confederation, Harry Lee served in the General Assembly and later in the United States House of Representatives. While eulogizing George Washington at his funeral in 1799, he famously described the first President as “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” After he retired from public service in 1801, he lived with his family at Stratford Hall, the Lee family plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia, and later in Alexandria, Virginia.

The bedstead descended to Harry and Anne’s son, Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), the Confederate soldier and commander of the Confederate States Army during the Civil War, and his wife Mary Anna Randolph Custis (1807-1873), the adopted great granddaughter of George Washington. He was born at Stratford Hall Plantation in 1807 and spent his early years there. After surrendering his army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in 1865, Lee became president of Washington College (later Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia, where he supported reconciliation between the North and South. He served in that capacity until his death in 1870. After his wife’s death in 1873, this bed remained in the Lee family and descended through several generations to Dr. Edward Stitt Fleming of Washington, D.C., a prominent psychiatrist who founded the Psychiatric Institutes of America. He gifted it to the current owner in 1995.

A related Philadelphia bedstead with a shaped headboard, reeded posts, and cabriole legs with shell carved knees is illustrated by William MacPherson Hornor in Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture (1935, pl. 242) as the property of Mrs. Charles F. Williams.