'Williamsburg' Chair, designed 1984

Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne designed and produced several works of unique sculptural furniture for the Lila Acheson Wallace Garden at Colonial Williamsburg, named for benefactors DeWitt and Lila Acheson Wallace (co-founders of Reader's Digest), completed in 1986 and representing the largest American commission for Les Lalanne at the time. The garden, designed in the contemporary English style by British landscape architect Sir Peter Shepheard, celebrated the gardens found at Colonial Williamsburg and the distinct natural environment of Virginia with native vines such as Carolina yellow jessamine climbing the surrounding brick walls, and potted plants, changed with the seasons, lining the rectangular reflecting pool at the center of the garden. The pieces by Les Lalanne, designed in the botanical style favored by Claude Lalanne, included benches, chairs, and side tables shaped from overlapping iris leaves, and bronze and terracotta potted planters with natural motifs molded in relief. The design of iris leaves and butterflies that decorate the present Pair of 'Williamsburg' Jardinieres in bronze represents the smallest of 3 different-sized planters produced by Les Lalanne for the commission, and can still be found at The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg.