This set of Colonial Revival dining room armchairs was produced by George E. Vernon & Co., a furniture company founded by George Edward Vernon (1821–89) in 1876. They originally furnished the new dining room of Kingscote, the Newport summer cottage of the King family, which was commissioned by David King Jr. from the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White (American, active 1879–1906) in 1881–82. The chairs are made from mahogany with caned seats and loose cushions upholstered with leather over horsehair. The turned front legs have casters for added mobility. The design of the chairs and other Colonial Revival furnishings in the dining room celebrated the King family’s deep roots in Newport. The chairs also reflected the greater public interest in America’s Colonial period and taste for historic furnishings, which were sparked by the nation’s Centennial celebrations in 1876. At the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, one of the top attractions was a “Colonial kitchen.” The promise of windfall profits from Colonial-style furnishings at the time of the Centennial may have encouraged Vernon to establish his company in Newport that same year. When Vernon founded the business, he was already an established local cabinetmaker who enjoyed prominent commissions, such as furnishing steamboats on the Fall River-New York line. After Vernon’s death in 1889, his wife, Anne, and sons George E., Jr. and William B. Vernon led Vernon & Co. When the business closed in 1964, the Newport Daily News asserted, “a Vernon piece of modern make has been compared to the best products of Newport cabinet makers in Colonial days.”