CHAISE
Body painted black. Trimming: black leather top and cushions (restored in 1953).
The chaise has been defined as a two-wheeled carriage for two persons with a calash (folding) top and the body hung on leather straps or thorough-braces.
This chaise was purchased from the descendants of Gen. John Stark of Dunbarton, New Hampshire where the family homestead is located. Tradition has it that Gen. Stark met the Marquis de Lafayette in Concord, New Hampshire and drove him to the Stark home in this chaise where Lafayette visited with Stark during his 1784 visit to America.
John Stark was one of the most colorful heroes of the Revolutionary War and a special hero of Vermont, for it was at the Battle of Bennington that Stark overwhelmingly defeated the British forces on August 16, 1777. “Bennington Battle Day” is Still celebrated every year in Vermont, and is a state holiday.
