As Virginia citizens emigrated west, Virginia stylists and furniture makers took their patterns and styles with them. Not all the styles mimicked the British; emigrants like the German Johannes Spitler brought their native painting and folk decorative styles to the Shenandoah Valley.
When Virginians moved west, they took their fashion and furniture design ideas with them.  While some styles were influenced by Britain, others, such as those of Johannes Spitler, a German immigrant, reflected his own artistic heritage from Germany.