Lot Essay
Fancifully painted boards and stretched canvas panels provided a variety of architectural embellishments to affluent 18th and 19th century American buildings. Among other functions, these panels were used both to decorate an overmantel or to screen an unused fireplace during warmer months. Due to the nature of their use, stretched canvas fireboards and overmantels survived less frequently.
Several fireboards executed in this less frequently used medium exist in public and private collections. Two examples, identical to each other, dated to the first half of the 19th century and both documented to Spartanburg County, South Carolina are related to the architectural panel illustrated here in their shared oil on canvas medium. Inscribed "View of the Castle of Montgomery," the first of these descended in the Moore family of South Carolina, and is currently in the collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center (illustrated in Rumford, ed., American Folk Paintings From the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center (New York, 1988), fig. 346, pp. 395 - 396). The second stretched canvas fireboard was made for the nearby Wofford house and is currently in the collection of the New York State Historical Association (illustrated in Lipman and Winchester, The Flowering of American Folk Art, 1776 - 1876 (New York, 1974), fig. 267, p. 199). Two stretched canvas fireboards with trompe l'oeil frames, one in the Garbisch Collection, National Gallery of Art, and the other formerly in the collection of Betram K. and Nina Fletcher Little, are also illustrated in Lipman and Winchester, figs. 265 and 266, pp. 198-199.
In addition to their use as fireboards, these panels were also used as overmantels. A stretched canvas overmantel showing the grounds and appearance of the house, Holly Hill, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, dates to between 1716 and 1733, and is illustrated in Little, American Decorative Wall Painting 1700 - 1850 (New York, 1972), fig. 15, pp. 20 -23.
In each of these instances, whether fireboard or overmantel, a specific building was portrayed, thus suggesting a comparative preference within the form for representational images over contrived scenes. Whether the panel illustrated here was intended as an overmantel or a fireboard, and likewise, whether its central image depicts a historical landscape or fantastical scene remains unknown.
Several fireboards executed in this less frequently used medium exist in public and private collections. Two examples, identical to each other, dated to the first half of the 19th century and both documented to Spartanburg County, South Carolina are related to the architectural panel illustrated here in their shared oil on canvas medium. Inscribed "View of the Castle of Montgomery," the first of these descended in the Moore family of South Carolina, and is currently in the collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center (illustrated in Rumford, ed., American Folk Paintings From the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center (New York, 1988), fig. 346, pp. 395 - 396). The second stretched canvas fireboard was made for the nearby Wofford house and is currently in the collection of the New York State Historical Association (illustrated in Lipman and Winchester, The Flowering of American Folk Art, 1776 - 1876 (New York, 1974), fig. 267, p. 199). Two stretched canvas fireboards with trompe l'oeil frames, one in the Garbisch Collection, National Gallery of Art, and the other formerly in the collection of Betram K. and Nina Fletcher Little, are also illustrated in Lipman and Winchester, figs. 265 and 266, pp. 198-199.
In addition to their use as fireboards, these panels were also used as overmantels. A stretched canvas overmantel showing the grounds and appearance of the house, Holly Hill, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, dates to between 1716 and 1733, and is illustrated in Little, American Decorative Wall Painting 1700 - 1850 (New York, 1972), fig. 15, pp. 20 -23.
In each of these instances, whether fireboard or overmantel, a specific building was portrayed, thus suggesting a comparative preference within the form for representational images over contrived scenes. Whether the panel illustrated here was intended as an overmantel or a fireboard, and likewise, whether its central image depicts a historical landscape or fantastical scene remains unknown.