Footstool

1840-1860

Measurements

7-3/4 in x 16-1/2 in x 7-3/4 in

Materials

Hard pine

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of Mrs. Clarence Solomon

Accession Number

1971.28

Inscription

‘G. D. COLLINS” is stamped across the grain on the underside of the top board.

Condition Notes

One of the foot boards has loosened from the mortises in the top.  The footstool has a very old and worn layer of grayish paint.

Provenance

The footstool came from the Collins-Sharp House (before it was moved from Collins Beach to its present location in 1962 and restored), where the donor (born c. 1888) lived for several years with her parents beginning in about 1904.

Comments

The stamped name of an owner, reinforced by provenance, saves this simple footstool from historical anonymity.  “G. D. COLLINS” stands for George D. Collins (1827-1911) of Smyrna.  He married Wilhelmina Taylor (1831-1860) in 1849. Later in George’s life, he moved to a farm known as “Green Spring,” just north of Smyrna.  For details of his life, see Biographical and Genealogical History of the State of Delaware (1899), vol. 1, pp. 729-30.

The foot boards of this simple stool are double-tenoned into the top board.  Each tenon is wedged in place.