Armchair (one of a pair)
- Armchair (one of a pair)
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The Neoclassical period witnessed the reintroduction of painted furniture into formal interiors. This decoration, like inlay, was fashionable during the Late Baroque period but during the Rococo was superseded in favor of figured mahogany and rich carvings. These armchairs are unusual in Philadelphia, where the vogue for ornamental painting seems to have been restrained. In addition to their polychrome surfaces, the chairs exhibit a series of unusual elements, including the beading reminiscent of pearlwork borders on silver and the practical substitution of mahogany arms in place of painted ones.
Technical notes: Yellow-poplar, mahogany (arms); yellow-poplar. Microscopic examination of the chairs’ surface indicates that the present paint scheme is of a later date and that much of the original decoration has been abraded.
Related examples: Two examples remain at Cliveden, Germantown, Pennsylvania. See Konkle 1932, facing p. 267; Winchester 1959, p. 535; Shepherd 1976, p. 8; Hornor 1977, p. 266, pl. 430; Hendrickson 1983, p. 262. Reminiscent is a side chair illustrated in Antiques 103 (January 1973), p. 175.
Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.
ProvenanceProbably Benjamin Chew (1722–1810); possibly inherited by his great-grandson Richard Albert Tilghman (1824–1899); given to his wife’s cousin Colonel Owen Jones (1819–1878); given to Reverend George W. McLaughlin; given to his daughters Annie L. McLaughlin and Carrie V. Emery; Howard Reifsnyder, Philadelphia; Estate of Howard Reifsnyder; consigned to [American Art Association, New York, April 24–27, 1929, lot 693]; [David Stockwell (1907–1996), Wilmington, Delaware]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1961; given to MFAH.
Published References Holloway, Edward Stratton. American Furniture and Decoration: Colonial and Federal. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1928, p. 111, pl. 51B; Good Furniture Magazine 30 (February 1928), pp. 87–88; American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, Colonial Furniture: The Superb Collection of the Late Howard Reifsnyder, New York, April 24–27, 1929, lot 693; Antiques 80 (July 1961), p. 1; Fales, Dean A., Jr. American Painted Furniture 1660−1880. Robert Bishop and Cyril I. Nelson, eds. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1972, pp. 108–9; Warren, David B. Bayou Bend: American Furniture, Paintings and Silver from the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1975, p. 79, no. 146. Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
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