These two chairs were part of the original 1905 furnishings purchased for the State House Annex. The highback armchair was one of three originally used on the upper rostrum of the House of Delegates Chamber, and may have been used as the speaker’s chair; three similar chairs were placed on the upper rostrum of the Senate Chamber.

The swivel armchair was used in the House of Delegates Chamber as a delegate’s chair or clerk’s chair. Both chairs were presented to Speaker Perry Wilkinson upon his retirement from the House of Delegates in 1962.