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Lot Essay
Magnificent in design, execution and condition, this armchair is an icon of American craftsmanship. The chair has long been revered as a striking expression of native ingenuity and from Albert Sack's accolades in 1950 to scholarship in 2010, the chair's stature as the most impressive and important survival of the work of John Gaines III (1704-1743) endures. Simply put by Philip Zea, this chair reveals "Gaines at his best," and along with an example at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (fig. 1), it stands as one of only two armchairs that can be assuredly attributed to this celebrated maker. The chair's outscrolling back and spectacular flaring ram's-horn arms create a stance that is both dramatic and perfectly balanced. Beautifully preserved, the chair survives in pristine condition and provides critical evidence for understanding related chairs associated with the Gaines shop.
This armchair displays key features identical to those seen on four side chairs made and owned by John Gaines III that descended directly from the maker in the Brewster family (fig. 2). With their history of descent, the Brewster chairs serve as the sole basis for attributions to Gaines and of the known related armchairs, the example offered here most closely resembles the four made by the chairmaker for his own personal use. As discussed by Robert Trent, Erik Gronning and Alan Andersen in their recent study, the Brewster chairs and this armchair display the same distinctive crests, splats, seat design, stretcher turnings and Spanish feet. The distinctive and immediately recognizable pierced crests are idiosyncratic renditions of the C-scroll and foliate-carved crests of caned and banister-back chairs made in the early eighteenth in England and Boston. While approximately thirty chairs with this archetypal crest design are known, only six of these are armchairs and of the six, at least three have undergone considerable alterations (see below). Also conspicuous are the large Spanish feet, which are constructed in the solid from the same stock of wood as the front legs. As the feet project well beyond the widest sections of the legs, this practice was particularly wasteful and required discarding a substantial portion of stock; in contrast, the vast majority of Spanish feet from this period were made with laminates providing the extra depth of the foot. Gaines' feet are further marked by the pronounced groove running down the center ridge and a severe undercut between the foot and the block immediately above. In its remarkable state of preservation, this armchair well illustrates the unusual seat construction of Gaines' chairs. Like the Brewster chairs, the armchair has a mortise-and-tenoned seat frame, which houses a separate rushed frame supported by brackets nailed to the rear stiles. This armchair is the only example to have most of its original retaining strips, which were nailed on top of the seat-frame rails to secure the rushed frame. As indicated by the chair in fig. 1, chairs with rush-seats doweled directly into the stiles were also made in the Gaines shop (Philip Zea, catalogue entry, Portsmouth Furniture: Masterworks from the New Hampshire Seacoast, Brock Jobe, ed. (Hanover, New Hampshire, 1993), pp. 295-297 (fn. 4); Frances Gruber Safford, American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Early Colonial Period (New Haven, Connecticut, 2007), p. 97; Robert F. Trent, Erik Gronning and Alan Andersen, "The Gaines Attributions and Baroque Seating in Northeastern New England," American Furniture 2010, ed. Luke Beckerdite (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2010), pp. 141-148, 185 (fn. 8); Nancy E. Richards and Nancy Goyne Evans, New England Furniture at Winterthur: Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods (Winterthur, Delaware, 1997), p. 31).
The most arresting feature of the chair, however, is its large, outsweeping ram's-horn arms. While their design is seen on Boston, English and European sources, it is their "heroic" size, as termed by Nancy Goyne Evans, that differentiates Gaines' versions from the precedents. As recently discussed by Trent, Gronning and Andersen, the arms on Gaines' chairs are predominantly executed with a saw and spokeshave with only the grips and finishing rendered with carving tools (Nancy Goyne Evans, catalogue entry, in Richards and Evans, p. 34; Trent, Gronning and Andersen, pp. 145-146).
Since this chair's appearance in the marketplace shortly before 1930, it has featured in a number of prominent private collections and public exhibitions. One of its previous owners was the renowned collector, Mitchell Taradash of Ardsley-on-Hudson. His collection, which was featured in The Magazine Antiques shortly before he acquired this armchair, included a pair of Gaines-type side chairs. Placed either side of a William and Mary high chest, the side chairs furnished what appears to have been an entryway and it is probable that this armchair also stood in this room from about 1954 until it was acquired by the firm of Israel Sack, Inc. twenty years later (Alice Winchester, "Living with Antiques: The Home of Mr. and Mrs. Mitchel Taradash," The Magazine Antiques (Jan. 1953), p. 46).
As listed by Frances Safford, other armchairs with vasiform splats associated with John Gaines III or the Gaines family comprise eight examples as follows. Five armchairs with the archetypal crest design are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (fig. 1), Winterthur Museum (heavily restored) and the Western Reserve Historical Society (with alterations) and two private collections (one of which was formerly in the collection of the MMA and the other is lacking most of its crest) (see Safford, pp. 99-102, cat. 37; Richards and Evans, pp. 474-475, no. 217; Jairus B. Barnes and Moselle Taylor Meals, American Furniture in the Western Reserve, 1680-1830 (Cleveland, Ohio, 1972), no. 4; Helen Comstock, "An Ipswich Account Book, 1707-1762," The Magazine Antiques (September 1954), p. 191; The Candle Shop Antiques, advertisement, The Magazine Antiques (June 1954), p. 455). The three additional chairs have a variant crest design with a central lobe. They are in the collections of Winterthur Museum and the Chipstone Foundation (with later crest) and a third is known through an advertisement (see Richards and Evans, pp. 33-35, no. 18; Luke Beckerdite and Alan Miller, "Furniture Fakes from the Chipstone Collection," American Furniture 2002, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2002), pp. 65-66, figs. 23, 24; I.M. Wiese, advertisement, The Magazine Antiques (December 1981), p. 1464).
This armchair displays key features identical to those seen on four side chairs made and owned by John Gaines III that descended directly from the maker in the Brewster family (fig. 2). With their history of descent, the Brewster chairs serve as the sole basis for attributions to Gaines and of the known related armchairs, the example offered here most closely resembles the four made by the chairmaker for his own personal use. As discussed by Robert Trent, Erik Gronning and Alan Andersen in their recent study, the Brewster chairs and this armchair display the same distinctive crests, splats, seat design, stretcher turnings and Spanish feet. The distinctive and immediately recognizable pierced crests are idiosyncratic renditions of the C-scroll and foliate-carved crests of caned and banister-back chairs made in the early eighteenth in England and Boston. While approximately thirty chairs with this archetypal crest design are known, only six of these are armchairs and of the six, at least three have undergone considerable alterations (see below). Also conspicuous are the large Spanish feet, which are constructed in the solid from the same stock of wood as the front legs. As the feet project well beyond the widest sections of the legs, this practice was particularly wasteful and required discarding a substantial portion of stock; in contrast, the vast majority of Spanish feet from this period were made with laminates providing the extra depth of the foot. Gaines' feet are further marked by the pronounced groove running down the center ridge and a severe undercut between the foot and the block immediately above. In its remarkable state of preservation, this armchair well illustrates the unusual seat construction of Gaines' chairs. Like the Brewster chairs, the armchair has a mortise-and-tenoned seat frame, which houses a separate rushed frame supported by brackets nailed to the rear stiles. This armchair is the only example to have most of its original retaining strips, which were nailed on top of the seat-frame rails to secure the rushed frame. As indicated by the chair in fig. 1, chairs with rush-seats doweled directly into the stiles were also made in the Gaines shop (Philip Zea, catalogue entry, Portsmouth Furniture: Masterworks from the New Hampshire Seacoast, Brock Jobe, ed. (Hanover, New Hampshire, 1993), pp. 295-297 (fn. 4); Frances Gruber Safford, American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Early Colonial Period (New Haven, Connecticut, 2007), p. 97; Robert F. Trent, Erik Gronning and Alan Andersen, "The Gaines Attributions and Baroque Seating in Northeastern New England," American Furniture 2010, ed. Luke Beckerdite (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2010), pp. 141-148, 185 (fn. 8); Nancy E. Richards and Nancy Goyne Evans, New England Furniture at Winterthur: Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods (Winterthur, Delaware, 1997), p. 31).
The most arresting feature of the chair, however, is its large, outsweeping ram's-horn arms. While their design is seen on Boston, English and European sources, it is their "heroic" size, as termed by Nancy Goyne Evans, that differentiates Gaines' versions from the precedents. As recently discussed by Trent, Gronning and Andersen, the arms on Gaines' chairs are predominantly executed with a saw and spokeshave with only the grips and finishing rendered with carving tools (Nancy Goyne Evans, catalogue entry, in Richards and Evans, p. 34; Trent, Gronning and Andersen, pp. 145-146).
Since this chair's appearance in the marketplace shortly before 1930, it has featured in a number of prominent private collections and public exhibitions. One of its previous owners was the renowned collector, Mitchell Taradash of Ardsley-on-Hudson. His collection, which was featured in The Magazine Antiques shortly before he acquired this armchair, included a pair of Gaines-type side chairs. Placed either side of a William and Mary high chest, the side chairs furnished what appears to have been an entryway and it is probable that this armchair also stood in this room from about 1954 until it was acquired by the firm of Israel Sack, Inc. twenty years later (Alice Winchester, "Living with Antiques: The Home of Mr. and Mrs. Mitchel Taradash," The Magazine Antiques (Jan. 1953), p. 46).
As listed by Frances Safford, other armchairs with vasiform splats associated with John Gaines III or the Gaines family comprise eight examples as follows. Five armchairs with the archetypal crest design are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (fig. 1), Winterthur Museum (heavily restored) and the Western Reserve Historical Society (with alterations) and two private collections (one of which was formerly in the collection of the MMA and the other is lacking most of its crest) (see Safford, pp. 99-102, cat. 37; Richards and Evans, pp. 474-475, no. 217; Jairus B. Barnes and Moselle Taylor Meals, American Furniture in the Western Reserve, 1680-1830 (Cleveland, Ohio, 1972), no. 4; Helen Comstock, "An Ipswich Account Book, 1707-1762," The Magazine Antiques (September 1954), p. 191; The Candle Shop Antiques, advertisement, The Magazine Antiques (June 1954), p. 455). The three additional chairs have a variant crest design with a central lobe. They are in the collections of Winterthur Museum and the Chipstone Foundation (with later crest) and a third is known through an advertisement (see Richards and Evans, pp. 33-35, no. 18; Luke Beckerdite and Alan Miller, "Furniture Fakes from the Chipstone Collection," American Furniture 2002, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2002), pp. 65-66, figs. 23, 24; I.M. Wiese, advertisement, The Magazine Antiques (December 1981), p. 1464).