Detail of George Washington (Lansdowne portrait)

Revolutionary Battle Flag,circa 1776 Library of Congress

The oval medallion on the back of the armchair is draped with laurel, a symbol of victory. The medallion’s stars and stripes imitate those on the Great Seal, in which an eagle bears a shield with a blue horizontal field with 13 stars above 13 red-and-white vertical stripes. William Barton, one of the designers of the Seal, said the stars and the stripes represented the 13 original states, individually and as a confederation.

George Washington engraving, 1791 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

The chair is also decorated with five pointed stars and acanthus leaves, reflective of classical Greek and Roman ornamentation.

Engraving of George Washington and Family by Edward Savage and David Edwin, 1798 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

When Washington took up residence in New York, the nation’s capital, in 1789, he purchased from the Count de Moustier a Louis XVI armchair that had a rosette similar to those on the chair rail and the table in the painting.