gothic revival chair

Though Oak Hill Cottage is a Gothic Revival masterpiece of a house, its furniture is mid-Victorian. The original owner, John R. Robinson, sold his furniture for $445 in 1861 and left Oak Hill, according to his journal that begins his Mexican silver mining venture. The Gothic style was on its way out of fashion in the 1860s when Dr. Jones bought the house in 1864 and began to fill it with the latest furniture from New York shops. That fact fairly precludes there being any Gothic Revival furniture in the Jones family collection that furnishes the house today.
But just a couple of weeks ago I was stunned to notice a chair in the library that had to have come from the earlier period. I had never noticed it before, but assumed it was just part of getting to know the house better on my periodic rounds. When I was drafted to fill in with the tour this Sunday, I made mention of the chair to each group, pointing out that it must have come out of the attic from the Robinson era, because it was the only piece of furniture in the house today appropriate to the Gothic Revival architecture.
After the tours I mentioned it to Guild member Marge Graham, and she surprised me by saying the chair had been donated to Oak Hill from the descendants of John R. Robinson out of his estate in Maryland. Not realizing its significance the chair had been stored in the maid's quarters until Marge, who likes it, had set it out while decorating the library for Christmas. I promised Marge I would write the chair into the tour guide script so it has to remain on display from now on.
Its likely that either the chair was original to Oak Hill and kept by Robinson, or that it came from his later home at the Batopolis silver mine in Mexico. Either way, it fits the most comfortably into Oak Hill's architecture of any of the pieces in the house.