Ladderback Chair
MAKER: Born a slave in Halifax County, Virginia, Richard “Dick” Poynor (1802-1882) was likely taught turning and joinery skills by his master Robert Poynor, a craftsman whose estate inventory included various tools, including chairmaking tools. Dick purchased his freedom sometime between 1850 and 1860, settling in Williamson County, Tennessee, where he operated a chair factory along with the assistance of his son James Poynor (1833-1893).
Dick Poynor seemed to enjoy a special status in antebellum Williamson County that few men of color were able to realize. He apparently could read and write…Despite the racial strife following the Civil War, he remained an honored citizen of the community, as evidenced by his membership from April 1865 until his death on March 27, 1882, in the Leiper’s Fork Primitive Baptist Church, a predominately white congregation. He was buried in the Garrison cemetery near his home. Poynor is still revered as a master craftsman and cherished as part of the history of the Leiper’s Fork area.
Sometime between 1850 and 1860 Dick obtained his freedom and, if tradition is correct, purchased the freedom of hi second wife, Millie. Williamson County court records are silent on the emancipation of Poynor or his wife, but he was listed as posting a bond in 1860, as a freeman of color was required to do, and paying land taxes. By 1851 he had moved from the Robert Poynor farm near Brentwood and was working at his own horse-powered chair factory and hillside farm of 150 acres off Pinewood Road in western Williamson County. Dick Poynor with the help of his son James (1833-1893), produced hundreds of chairs at the factory. The Poynor chair construction was simple. With the knowledge that green wood shrinks as it dries, Poynor drove dry rungs into green posts, assured that the joint would remain tight without nails or glue.
The classic signature of a Poynor chair is found in the gracefully arching mule-eared post secured with a wooden peg in the top slat. Typically, the posts, slats, and rocker arms were made of sugar maple. while the rungs were made of hickory and the rockers of walnut. Dick made armed rocking chairs in several sizes, armless sewing rockers, high chairs for infants, and youth chairs for children. Mostly he made standard straight chairs in three sizes. The Poynor chair could be purchased as a rosewood-grained, yellow-striped “fancy chair” or in the solid hues of red, blue, black, brown and green, all bottomed in finely woven patterns of white-oak splits.” (Caldwell, Hicks, Scala, p.90)