World's Largest Duncan Phyfe Chair
Washington, DC
This Duncan Phyfe model is often overlooked in the Mighty Chair Conflict. It's 19 feet tall, and when it was built in 1958 it was made of real mahogany, a tough wood that could survive years of outdoor Washington, DC, weather.
The chair was created by the Virginia-based Bassett Furniture company for Curtis Brothers Furniture, specifically to surpass a big Duncan Phyfe chair in North Carolina.
Bassett built an even bigger, 20-foot-tall mission style chair in 2002, and hauled it across the country to appear at store openings. That was a sure sign that the 1958 chair had fallen from favor. In 2005 the Washington chair was determined to be in danger of collapse and it was torn down, its mahogany exhausted. But in 2006 Bassett erected an identical 19-footer in its place -- identical except that it was made of mahogany-stained aluminum.