George Washington's Bed, the first piece in Owen Suter's Mount Vernon collection (Photo courtesy Suter's)
The Suter family has kept the tradition of handcrafted, neoclassical American furniture alive for six generations, producing a collection of 18th-century reproduction furniture made with the same artisanship and style as the originals. Today, Owen Suter III continues the family tradition by crafting period furniture pieces for clients and collections for resale in partnership with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Colonial Williamsburg and now a new partnership with the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, which has managed the National Historic Landmark since 1858.
To introduce the relationship, the association auctioned off Suter’s solid mahogany reproduction of George and Martha Washington’s Mt. Vernon bed just in time for President Washington’s birthday on Feb. 22. The four-poster bed, handcrafted from a felled Mt. Vernon mahogany tree, is the first in the 18- to 20-piece collection that will be formally introduced in early fall 2021. “We’re humbled to be able to create the reproduction of the Washington bed and touch history,” says Debbie Suter, who co-manages the company with her husband. The Washington bed will be available through Mt. Vernon and other retailers, along with an inlaid hunt board, dining chairs, a shaving stand (with or without a mirror, to use as a bedside table with Washington’s four-poster bed), a small poster bed and a liquor cabinet.
“The Uncommon Chair, Washington’s favorite desk chair with a rounded back, in leather and wood, will be introduced by itself,” Debbie Suter says. The piece is “very well known; Mt. Vernon receives lots of calls for reproduction of this chair."
