Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
June 29, 1790
Primary Source Reference:
Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia), 29 June 1790
Additional Source Text:
"Upon this chair, which is said to have been made in the year 850, the Kings of Scotland were crowned, prior to the year 1296; at which period Edward I, of England, having subdued that Kingdom, brought the Coronation Chair, with all the other Regalia of the Scottish Kings, from Scone Abby, into England. Since that time the English and British Kings have been crowned sitting upon this Chair. The wood, which appears to be oak, is pretty sound nothwithstanding its great antiquity."
Also listed in Herald of Freedom (Boston), 13 July 1790
Notes:
Peale's account is not entirely accurate. The chair was commissioned in 1296 by King Edward I to contain the coronation stone of Scotland — known as the Stone of Scone — which had been captured from the Scots, who kept it at Scone Abbey. The image here shows the chair with the stone, which in 1996 was returned to Scotland. (Wikipedia, s.v., Stone of Scone, Coronation Chair)
William Barton (1754-1817) was a Pennsylvania lawyer, scholar, and the designer (with Charles Thomson) of the Great Seal of the United States. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society and a visitor of the Peale Museum.
